Many happy returns to Miss Stella Stevens, "star" of such "classics" as A Town Called Bastard, Monster in the Closet, Dangerous Curves , Attack of the 5 Ft. 2 Women [I'm not making this up, you know!], Megaconda and... The Poseidon Adventure! She's 80 years old today.
Never one to take herself too seriously, Miss Stevens has appeared in just about every tacky American "cult TV" series, including The Love Boat, Murder She Wrote, Fantasy Island, Flamingo Road, The Father Dowling Mysteries, Hart To Hart and Magnum PI, and was landed with such esoteric character names as "Lute-Mae Sanders", "'Mama Jo' Max", "Muffy Fuller", "'Lolly' Zachary van der Post" and "Appassionata Von Climax". But it is for her role as the sassy tart-with-a-heart "Linda Rogo" in that aforementioned blockbuster, possibly the campiest disaster movie ever made, that we remember her most.
Yes! A Linda Rogo doll! I want one...
To celebrate the lady's milestone birthday, here - interspersed with actual scenes from the film - is Linda's show-stopper from what would appear to be a rather camp musical version of Poseidon!:
Words to live by...
Many happy returns, Stella Stevens (born Estelle Eggleston, 1st October 1936)
We like Stella, shes a ritzy dame, who was a hot babe in her early movies. She's terrific in Minnelli's THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER, and in TOO LATE BLUES, and a Sam Peckinpah western and of course that POSEIDON ADVENTURE. Henry Hathaway said of her: "Stella Stevens was born to be in movies...and to drive men crazy!" Like that other ritzy dame Angie Dickinson I bet Stella could tell some tales ....
ReplyDeleteShe announced in 1976 she was going to run for US President. Shame she's not in the contest now... Jx
DeleteFabulous
ReplyDeleteWe need to rehearse this for our next house party..! Jx
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