Stella Stevens, Nutty Professor Actress and '60s Hollywood Bombshell, Dead at 84: 'OG of Badass Women'

Tommaso Boddi/WireImage Stella Stevens in 2012

Stella Stevens, a Golden Globe-winning actress and '60s Hollywood bombshell, has died at the age of 84.

Multiple outlets, including Variety and Deadline, first reported Stevens' death on Friday, with the former attributing the news to her son Andrew Stevens and the latter to both Andrew and a longtime friend of the actress, John O'Brien.

Both publications reported that Stevens died in Los Angeles on Friday, following a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Green Life Media founder Maria Calabrese, Stevens' manager and friend, confirms the actress's death to PEOPLE and says in a statement, "It was an honor and a privilege to have worked with Stella, who was one of the most wonderful and gifted people I have ever worked with."

"She was an amazing animal lover, horse wrangler, rock-and-roller, so ahead of her time and so much more than a sex symbol — which her adoring fans admired, respected and understood," adds Calabrese. "What a tremendous body of work and loss. The O.G. of badass women."

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Everett Jerry Lewis and Stella Stevens in The Nutty Professor (1963)

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Stevens was born Estelle Eggleston in 1938, and had her big-screen debut with small parts in multiple 1959 movies before bigger breaks in films like Too Late Blues (1961), Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962), The Nutty Professor (1963) and The Silencers (1966), co-starring with Bobby Darin, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, respectively.

She would go on to appear in dozens of films, including 1972's The Poseidon Adventure and 1975's Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold, as well as television series like Bonanza, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, Fantasy Island, Night Court and many more.

Everett Elvis Presley and Stella Stevens in Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)

Stevens modeled for Playboy multiple times and was featured as the magazine's Playmate of the Month in January 1960 before appearing in two more issues later that decade. She also came in at No. 27 on the magazine's list of the 100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th Century, per Variety.

The actress has been quoted as once saying, "It's been my heart's desire to direct since I started doing movies. I directed two films in the '70s and '80s (1979's The American Heroine and 1989's The Ranch). One was a feature-length documentary. But I've still not made my debut with a big film."

"So why has it taken me so long? Because it was hard as a 'sexpot,' as I was labeled in the '60s and '70s, to have people take me seriously as a producer or director," added Stevens, who won a Golden Globe for new star of the year in 1960. "They would rather see me without my clothes on."

Silver Screen Collection/Getty Stella Stevens circa 1965

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In her statement to PEOPLE, Calabrese adds, "While I truly wish I could have done more for her toward the latter years of her career, I shared in her frustration, as she so wanted to make the leap from a triple-threat American icon to producer. Her wish, never realized, was to have three original Western scripts produced."

But despite not hitting every career goal she had, Stevens once said, "I did the best I could with the tools I had and the opportunities given me," according to Deadline.

"I was a divorced mom with a toddler by the time I was 17," the actress reportedly added. "And Playboy did as much harm as it helped. But in spite of that rough start, I did okay."

Stevens is survived by son Andrew, as well as three grandchildren, Variety and Deadline reported. She was preceded in death by her partner of 37 years: KISS guitarist Bob Kulick, who died in 2020 at age 70.