Venetia Stevenson obit

Venetia Stevenson, Actress Once Called “The Most Photogenic Girl in the World,” Dies at 84

The daughter of a 'General Hospital' star and the director of 'Mary Poppins,' she appeared in 'Darby's Rangers,' 'Island of Lost Women' and 'Horror Hotel' and on a magazine seen in 'Back to the Future Part II.' 

She was not on the list.

Venetia Stevenson, a model, actress and daughter of Hollywood luminaries who appeared in films including Darby’s Rangers, Island of Lost Women and Horror Hotel after being labeled “the most photogenic girl in the world,” has died. She was 84.

Stevenson died Monday at a health care facility in Atlanta after a battle with Parkinson’s disease, her brother, actor and photographer Jeffrey Byron, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Stevenson’s parents were Robert Stevenson, the Oscar-nominated director of Mary Poppins who earlier helmed King Solomon’s Mines and Jane Eyre, and Anna Lee, who starred in How Green Was My Valley and portrayed the matriarch Lila Quartermaine for a quarter-century on General Hospital.

The screen siren was married to actor Russ Tamblyn from Valentine’s Day 1956 until their divorce in April 1957 and to Don Everly of The Everly Brothers from 1962-70 and was romantically linked to Elvis Presley, Audie Murphy — her co-star in 1960’s Seven Ways From Sundown — Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins.

She also was Axl Rose’s mother-in-law for about a year; her daughter, Erin Everly, was married to the Guns N’ Roses frontman from April 1990 until their marriage was annulled in January 1991.

In Warner Bros.’ Darby’s Rangers (1958), directed by William Wellman and starring James Garner, Stevenson portrayed Peggy McTavish, one of the Scottish women who wind up being paired with American soldiers (in her case, Peter Brown‘s Rollo Burns) during a World War II training mission.

She, Diane Jergens and June Blair played daughters of a nuclear scientist (Alan Napier) in Island of Lost Women (1959), and in Horror Hotel (1960), starring Christopher Lee, she was a student who heads to a spooky town to do research for a school paper about witchcraft.

Joanna Venetia Invicta Stevenson was born in London on March 10, 1938. Soon after, her dad signed a contract with producer David O. Selznick, and the family was off to Hollywood.

When she was 14, Stevenson was spotted on a beach in Malibu by photographer Peter Gowland, who was famous for his pin-up pictures. She posed for Gowland and his wife and wound up on lots of magazine covers, including one for Esquire.

“I started getting recognized after my pictures started coming out in magazines,” she said in a 2016 interview. “It was a strange feeling. Somebody would run up to you and say, ‘Can I have your autograph?’ I’d want to say, ‘Why would you want my autograph? I haven’t done anything.'”

An agent at Famous Artists agency signed her, leading to a contract at RKO Radio Pictures in 1956 as she and Ursula Andress took tap-dancing and fencing lessons together.

Represented by powerful agent Dick Clayton, Stevenson signed next at Warner Bros. and would appear for the studio on episodes of Cheyenne, Colt .45, 77 Sunset Strip, Sugarfoot and Lawman.

On 12 November 1957, Stevenson appeared as Kathy Larsen in the episode "Trail's End" of the ABC/Warner Bros. Western series, Sugarfoot. In the story, Kathy is a former childhood sweetheart of Tom Brewster's, played by series star Will Hutchins, though Stevenson is eight years younger than Hutchins. She is managing a dance hall to his consternation. Chris Alcaide plays the corrupt Clay Horton, who forces Kathy to marry him so she cannot testify in court regarding Horton's numerous crimes. Barbara Stuart is cast as Muriel, Kathy's business partner. Gordon Jones plays Sugarfoot's lively friend, Wasco Wolters, who has a romantic interest in Muriel. This episode reveals that Tom Brewster spent his childhood in Vermont before coming to the Oklahoma Territory. Stevenson subsequently appeared in two other Sugarfoot episodes, including "Brink of Fear" (1958) with fellow co-stars Jerry Paris, Harry Antrim, Allen Case, and Don Gordon.

She appeared in the Western drama Day of the Outlaw (1959), starring Robert Ryan and Tina Louise. Stevenson also had a primary role in the film version of the Studs Lonigan trilogy by James T. Farrell, brought to the screen in December 1960.[

Nineteen months after marrying Tamblyn at the Wayfarers Chapel in Palos Verdes — she was 17, he was 21 — Popular Photography magazine named her “the most photogenic girl in the world” out of 4,000 contestants in its September 1957 issue.

Stevenson accepted her award on CBS’ The Ed Sullivan Show, where the newly divorced model first met Everly, who was there to perform with his brother, Phil. The next year, when Darby’s Rangers hit theaters, her face appeared on cans and bottles of Sweetheart Stout, made in Scotland.

(Stevenson also was discovered on the cover of Oh LàLà magazine by Marty McFly in 1989’s Back to the Future Part II.)

Her big-screen résumé also included two films with her mom, Jet Over the Atlantic (1959) and The Big Night (1960); Day of the Outlaw (1959), starring Robert Ryan and Tina Louise; Studs Lonigan (1960), featuring Jack Nicholson; and The Sergeant Was a Lady (1961). She quit acting after marrying Everly.

Later, Stevenson served as a script reader for Burt Reynolds’ production company (they appeared together on a 1960 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents); as a vice president at the production company Cinema Group; and as a manager who represented the likes of director Renny Harlan.

In the 2015 documentary Tab Hunter Confidential, Stevenson said that she served as “a beard” when she was photographed around town with Hunter and Perkins.

“She lived a glamourous and busy life,” her brother said.

In addition to Byron and her daughter — Erin was the inspiration for the Guns N’ Roses song “Sweet Child o’ Mine” — survivors include another daughter, Stacy, and a son, Edan; her sister, Caroline; brother Steve; and four grandchildren.

“I’ve never really known anything but Hollywood,” she once said. “I don’t think I could relate to a physician or an accountant. What would we talk about? I guess, when I really stop and think about it, I have lived a very narrow existence, because movies are all I know.”

 

Actress (22 credits)

 1961 The Sergeant Was a Lady

Sgt. Judy Fraser

 1960 Studs Lonigan

Lucy Scanlon

 1960 Seven Ways from Sundown

Joy Karrington

 1960 The City of the Dead

Nan Barlow

 1960 Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series)

Stephanie Thomas

- Escape to Sonoita (1960) ... Stephanie Thomas

 1960 The Big Night

Ellie

 1959 Jet Over the Atlantic

June Elliott

 1959The Third Man (TV Series)

Martha Gessler

- The Best Policy (1959) ... Martha Gessler

 1959 Day of the Outlaw

Ernine

 1959 The Millionaire (TV Series)

Sally Simms

- Millionaire Sally Simms (1959) ... Sally Simms

 1959 Island of Lost Women

Venus

 1958 Lawman (TV Series)

Molly Matson

- The Badge (1958) ... Molly Matson

 1958 The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (TV Series)

Judy

- Rick's Riding Lesson (1958) ... Judy

 1958  77 Sunset Strip (TV Series)

Patty

- A Nice Social Evening (1958) ... Patty

 1957-1958 Sugarfoot (TV Series)

Dodie Logan / Trudy Young / Kathy Larsen

- Brink of Fear (1958) ... Dodie Logan

- Price on His Head (1958) ... Trudy Young

- Trail's End (1957) ... Kathy Larsen

 1958 Violent Road

Doreen (uncredited)

 1958 Colt .45 (TV Series)

Valentine

- Mantrap (1958) ... Valentine

 1958 Darby's Rangers

Peggy McTavish

 1957 Cheyenne (TV Series)

Standin

- The Conspirators (1957) ... Standin

 1957 Matinee Theatre (TV Series)

- A Light in the Sky (1957)

 1957 Playhouse 90 (TV Series)

Amy Spettigue

- Where's Charley? (1957) ... Amy Spettigue

 1954 Cavalcade of America (TV Series)

- The American Thanksgiving: Its History and Meaning (1954)

Hide HideProduction manager (5 credits)

 1986Hollywood Vice Squad (executive in charge of production)

 1986 Born American (executive in charge of production)

 1984 Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets (Documentary) (executive in charge of production)

 1981 Southern Comfort (executive in charge of production)

 1981 Take This Job and Shove It (executive in charge of production)

 

Producer (1 credit)

 1991 Servants of Twilight (producer)

 

Production designer (1 credit)

 1986 Born American