Jan Shepard, who acted reverse Elvis Presley in 1958’s King Creole and 1966’s Paradise, Hawaiian Style, and appeared in additional than 30 TV Westerns, died Jan. 17 at a hospital in Burbank, Calif. of pneumonia introduced on by respiratory failure. She was 96.
In King Creole, famous as Presley’s favourite of his movies, she portrayed his on-screen sister Mimi. Eight years later, Shepard performed Presley’s enterprise associate’s spouse within the buddy musical comedy. In an interview from final yr, Shepard stated she wasn’t a fan of Presley’s forward of working with him, however “once I met him, I just adored him.”
Per an official obituary, Presley and Shepard bought on nicely and went to off-set lunches (the place Marlon Brando as soon as made an opportunity look). Describing him as a “big teddy bear,” Shepard as soon as recalled that he gave her a pair of 10-cent earrings as a joke earlier than gifting her a stuffed tiger for her birthday at a shock occasion thrown by co-star, good pal (and eventual goddaughter) Dolores Hart, who performed Presley’s love curiosity in King Creole. (Steeped in outdated Hollywood, she was additionally Gunsmoke star Amanda Blake’s roommate.)
Shepard additionally stated that Presley regarded her as a sister in actual life and wished the 2 had been associated. When Hart famous her shock that the “Burning Love” crooner had truly stopped by the festivities, “He said I had to come, ‘She’s my sister. I wouldn’t miss her birthday party.’ I ran into him in the studio. He said to me, ‘I hear Elvis was at your birthday party.’ ‘Yeah, he was.’ He said, ‘You know he never goes anywhere, people go to him, he never goes to other people’s homes,’” Shepard remembered.
Recalling her first time assembly Presley at a health care provider’s workplace forward of filming the musical drama, she stated, laughing: “In walks Elvis with two of his buddies. I looked at him and he looked at me and we started to laugh. His jacket was the identical material and color of my slacks. He looked at me and he said, ‘Honey, I’m either going to have to give you my jacket or you’re going to have to give me your pants.’”
Outside of her movies reverse the King, Shepard was a prolific TV actress, embarking on her performing journey in 1949 and touchdown her on-screen debut in 1952 on Fireside Theatre. Two years later, she was in her first small display Western, Death Valley Days. Among her quite a few credit are: The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Loretta Young Show, Public Defender, The Lone Ranger, Tales of the Texas Rangers, Private Secretary, Waterfront, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Highway Patrol, Tombstone Territory, Rawhide, Gunslinger, Lawman, Laramie, The F.B.I., Ironside and lots of others. She had arcs on Gunsmoke (4 episodes), Perry Mason (4 episodes) and The Virginian (5 episodes), in addition to a long-running look spanning over 250 episodes in CBS’ Nineteen Sixties cleaning soap opera The Clear Horizon. Her remaining credited position was in The Rookies in 1973.
In addition to her tv roles, Shepard was in 1959’s cult B-movie Attack of the Giant Leeches and 1962’s Third of a Man, an acclaimed film about psychological sickness that additionally starred James Drury.
Of Sicilian ancestry, Josephine Angela Sorbello was born March 19, 1928, in Quakertown, Penn. In highschool, she appeared in performs and was a cheerleader, drum majorette and valedictorian. She moved to Los Angeles forward of 1950, becoming a member of the Ben Bard Players theater group and honing her abilities on the Pasadena Playhouse.
Her husband was Wyatt Earp actor Ray Boyle, whom she married in 1954. He died at age 98 in 2022. She is survived by her son Brandon Boyle.