A native of Hot Coffee, Mississippi, Stella was married at 15, a mother at 16 and divorced at 17. While attending Memphis State College, Stella became interested in acting and modeling. Her film debut was a bit part in Say One for Me, but her appearance in Li'l Abner as Appassionata Von Climax is the one that got her noticed. Then her centerfold spread in Playboy was one of the most popular issues. She co-starred with some of the biggest names in movies such as Bobby Darin in Too Late Blues; Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls!; Glenn Ford in The Courtship of Eddie's Father; Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor; and Dean Martin in The Silencers. She appeared on television in Surfside 6; Ben Casey and the soap General Hospital.

By the late 60s, her career had leveled off and she was appearing in roles based on her looks. One of her best performances at that time was in the movie The Ballad of Cable Hogue, where she played Hildy, and showed that her talent was more than physical. But then she appeared in a poor offering like Slaughter. In the 70s and 80s, Stella became a fixture in movies made for television and appeared in a number of television series. Her big screen career may have slowed during that time, but she has appeared in a number of movies in every decade since she debuted.



Mother of Andrew Stevens. Voluptuous figure reported to be a perfect 36C-24-36 as a starlet. (Source: celebrity Sleuth magazine). Recently she was voted one of the 100 sexiest women of the century; she was number 27. Ex-mother-in-law of Kate Jackson. Longtime partner of guitarist Bob Kulick. In 1981, she produced and directed a documentary profiling a variety of women from many walks of life, entitled The American Heroine (1979). Her film crew was comprised largely of film students from the University of Texas at Arlington. They had first worked with Stella in 1979 when she traveled to Texas to act for them, free of charge, in a short class film they were making, entitled "Lewis," directed by film student Tim Hatcher.