This enigmatic Stockholm-born beauty had everything going for her, including a rapidly rising film and TV career. Yet on April 30, 1970, at only 35, Inger Stevens would become another tragic Hollywood statistic -- added proof that fame and fortune do not always lead to happiness. Over time, a curious fascination, and perhaps even a morbid interest, has developed over Ms. Stevens and her life. What exactly went wrong? A remote, paradoxical young lady with obvious personal problems, she disguised it all with a seemingly positive attitude, an incredibly healthy figure and a megawatt smile that wouldn't quit. Although very little information has been filtered out about Ms. Stevens and her secretive life over the years, William T. Patterson's eagerly-anticipated biography, "The Farmer's Daughter Remembered: The Biography of Actress Inger Stevens" since 1961. The couple was estranged at the time of her death.
Following her suicide from acute barbiturate poisoning, it was revealed that Inger had been long married (from 1961) to African-American bit actor Ike Jones. The marriage, for obvious reasons, was kept under wraps to protect her career. They were estranged at the time she died.
She cheated death three times. In her first suicide attempt, she swallowed sleeping pills and ammonia which left her with blood clots in her lungs, legs swelled up to twice their size, and temporary blindness (she miraculously recovered within weeks); one time, she and Rod Steiger were nearly asphyxiated by carbon monoxide fumes while filming a scene from Cry Terror! in a tunnel (Steiger said years later she initially refused medical treatment at the scene, she said she wanted to die); and once she leaped from a crash-landing jet liner minutes before it exploded.
SPOILER: One of her best remembered TV roles was the episode "The Twilight Zone" {The Hitch-Hiker } , in which she played a frantic driver who kept passing the same hitchhiker on the road ("Going my way?"). The audience later finds out the phantom actually represented Death and that she had been killed in a car accident all along.
Was romantically involved with Bing Crosby during and after they appeared together in Man on Fire . The relationship never led to marriage because Stevens refused to convert to Catholicism. When Crosby married Kathryn Grant , (who had converted) a year or two later, Stevens was devastated.
A month after her death, her widower, Ike Jones , asked to be named administrator of her estate. Her brother appeared in court to support him, and eventually was given half of the estate. He immediately gave all the money to childrens charities and mental health organizations.
Replaced Barbara Bel Geddes on Broadway in "Mary, Mary" in 1962.
Was in the running but lost out on the role of Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffanys to Audrey Hepburn.
First husband, Tony Soglio, was also her first agent. They married in 1955 but separated after only six months. Since there was no community property, he was given 5% of her earnings for the next seven years upon their 1958 divorce.
When she died in 1970, she left an estate estimated at $162,000.
A 1952 graduate of Manhattan (KS) High School, she is being inducted into the MHS Hall of Fame, along with classmate Del Close (January 2007).
Aunt to actress Athena Ashburn , who was married to actor/writer/director Gabriel Bologna , who is the son of the comedy acting/writing team of Joseph Bologna and Rene Taylor.
Niece of theatre and film actress Karin Stensland.
While studying at the famous Actors Studio, to earn money she became a dancer at New Yorks Latin Quarter nightclub.
Once I felt that I was one person at home and the minute I stepped out,the door I had to be somebody else. I had a terrific insecurity and,extreme shyness that I covered up with coldness. Everybody thought I,was a snob. I was really just plain scared. .
