Inger Stevens

Inger Stevens was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the eldest child of Per Gustaf^[3] and Lisbet Stensland.^{[4][5][self-published source]} When she was six years old, her mother abandoned the family, taking her youngest son Peter with her. Soon after, Stevens' father moved to the United States, leaving Stevens and her brother Ola in the custody of the family maid and then later with an aunt on Lidingö,^[6] an island near Stockholm.^[7] In 1944, Stevens and her brother moved to the United States and lived with their father and his new American wife in New York City, where her father was completing his PhD in education at Columbia University. At age 13, Stevens moved with her family to Manhattan, Kansas, where her father taught at Kansas State University. Stevens attended Manhattan High School.^[4]

At 15, Stevens fled to Kansas City, where she worked in burlesque shows.^[8] At 18, she returned to New York City, where she worked as a chorus girl and in the Garment District while taking classes at the Actors Studio.^[7][9]

Stevens appeared on television series, in commercials, and in plays until she received her big break in the film Man on Fire (1957), starring Bing Crosby.

Starring roles in major films followed, including opposite James Mason and Rod Steiger in Cry Terror! (1958) and opposite Harry Belafonte in 1959's The World, the Flesh and the Devil, but she achieved her greatest success in the television series The Farmer's Daughter (1963–1966) with William Windom. Previously, Stevens had appeared in episodes of Bonanza, Route 66, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Eleventh Hour, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, Sam Benedict, The Aquanauts, and The Twilight Zone.

Following the cancellation of The Farmer's Daughter in 1966, Stevens appeared in several films including: A Guide for the Married Man (1967), Hang 'Em High, 5 Card Stud, and Madigan (all released in 1968). Her final theatrical film was A Dream of Kings (1969) opposite Anthony Quinn. Her final project was the television film, Run, Simon, Run (1970) with Burt Reynolds. At the time of her death, Stevens was attempting to revive her television career with the detective drama series The Most Deadly Game.^{[citation needed]}

Stevens's first husband was her agent, Anthony Soglio,^[10] to whom she was married from 1955 to 1957.

In January 1966, she was appointed to the advisory board of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute by California governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown. She also was named chairman of the California Council for Retarded Children. Her aunt was Karin Stensland Junker, author of The Child in the Glass Ball.^[11][12]

After Stevens' death, Ike Jones, the first black graduate of UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television, alleged that he had secretly married Stevens in Mexico in 1961.^[13][14] Some doubted Jones' claim because of the lack of a marriage license, the maintenance of separate homes, and the filing of tax documents as single people.^[15] However, when Stevens' estate was being settled, her brother, Carl O. Stensland, confirmed in court that Stevens had hidden her marriage to Jones "out of fear for her career."^[16] Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner A. Edward Nichols ruled in Jones' favor^[17] and named him administrator of her estate.^[18] A photograph exists of the two attending a banquet together in 1968.^[6]

On the morning of April 30, 1970, Stevens' roommate and companion Lola McNally found Stevens on the kitchen floor of her Hollywood Hills home. According to McNally, Stevens opened her eyes, lifted her head, and tried to speak, but was unable to utter any sound. McNally told police that she had spoken to Stevens the previous night and had seen no signs of trouble. Stevens died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. On arrival, medics removed a small bandage from her chin that revealed a small amount of fresh blood oozing from a cut that appeared to have been a few hours old. Los Angeles County coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi attributed Stevens' death to "acute barbiturate poisoning"^[19][20] and the death was eventually ruled a suicide.

• Debut (1956)
• Roman Candle (1960)
• Mary, Mary (1962)^[21]