The Biggest Movies and TV Coming in September

"The Gentlemen" and "Slow Horses" return this fall, while the "Reacher" spin-off series "Neagley" makes its debut. See our guide of the biggest Fall TV and streaming releases.

2026 Fall TV and Streaming Watch Guide

&quot;The Gentlemen&quot; and &quot;Slow Horses&quot; return this fall, while the &quot;Reacher&quot; spin-off series &quot;Neagley&quot; makes its debut. See our guide of the biggest Fall TV and streaming releases.

Get a closer look at these actors from their many TV and streaming series roles.

Streaming Stars, Then and Now

The early film career of Stella Stevens could be said to mirror that of Marilyn Monroe. She began by playing a succession of sensuous, blonde glamour girls, from naïve virgins and funny coquettes to precocious or briny-tongued floozies. Her early maturity on screen may have reflected her own turbulent private life: she was pregnant at 15, married and had a child (Andrew Stevens) at 16, and divorced a year later. At 21, having a child to support and no money, she posed as a celebrated Playboy centerfold. Stella was Playmate of the Month for January 1960, a fact which did her subsequent movie career no harm whatever. She was voted by Playboy as one of the 100 Sexiest Women of the 20th century and became one of the most photographed stars of the 1960s.

The voluptuous, blue-eyed Stella was born Estelle Caro Eggleston to one of the oldest families in Yazoo City, Mississippi. A myth, which had her hailing from the quaintly named area of Hot Coffee was purely an invention by Hollywood publicists. Her father, Thomas Ellet Eggleston, was an insurance salesman, her mother, Estelle (nee Caro), a nurse. The family moved to Memphis when she was four.

During her early childhood, Stella was nicknamed "Bootsie". Precocious and impatient to grow up, she took to watching movies at every opportunity. It became her main passion. Graduating from high school in 1955, she spent two years attending Memphis State University where she was 'discovered' during a production of Bus Stop in the role of aspiring nightclub singer Chérie (famously played by Marilyn in the film version). Borrowing some money, Stella then made her way to the bright lights of Los Angeles and was signed by 20th Century Fox in 1959. She made only three films for the studio during a six months spell before her contract was dropped, her debut being a bit part in Frank Tashlin's saccharine comedy-drama Say One for Me (1959).

Her role won her a Golden Globe Award as Most Promising Newcomer. That same year, she was picked up by Paramount and made her first breakthrough on the screen as the vampish Apassionata von Climax in the film version of the hit Broadway musical Li'l Abner (1959), based on Al Capp's comic strip. Stella subsequently alternated motion pictures with television appearances, displaying a perhaps unexpectedly wide range as an actress in both dramatic and comedic roles. She stood out in films like Too Late Blues (1961) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), both under greatly contrasting directorial styles.

Above all, Stella saw herself not as a sex icon but as a comedienne. She once said "I want to be remembered for whatever made people laugh the most." Unafraid to do physical comedy in the manner of Lucille Ball she was also often lauded for her comic timing in films like The Silencers (1966) (a James Bond-style spoof, co-starring a sleepy-eyed Dean Martin) and Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968). In the 1970s. Her best role was as a warmhearted prostitute in Sam Peckinpah's seminal western The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970). Writer and critic Roger Ebert wrote of her performance "There are few enough actresses who can be funny and feminine at the same time, but she is certainly one of them."

Like many film careers, hers too experienced a fair share of hiccups along the way, often due to typecasting: duds like Slaughter (1972), Stand Up and Be Counted (1972), Las Vegas Lady (1975), The Manitou (1978), and others. However, Stella proved resourceful enough to diversify and go behind the camera, both as producer and director of a feature-length documentary, The American Heroine (1979). She co-authored a novel entitled 'Razzle, Dazzle' (published in 1999), relating the rise and fall of a glamorous rock star. She also unveiled her own range of women's and men's fragrances, called 'Sexy'.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Stella concentrated primarily on television and enjoyed lengthy tenures on the glossy soaps Flamingo Road (1980) and Santa Barbara (1984), in addition to many guest appearances in shows as diverse as Police Story (1973), Hotel (1983), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). In 1976, she briefly forsook the glamour of Beverly Hills and set up home on a 27-acre ranch on the edge of the Cascade Mountains in Washington State and then proceeded to operate an art gallery and bakery in a nearby town.

By 1983, she had returned to her Beverly Hills home where she lived with her partner (rock guitarist Bob Kulick), until the home was sold in 2016. Afflicted by Alzheimer's disease, Stella Stevens spent her remaining years in an assisted living home in California and passed away in Los Angeles on February 17 2023 at the age of 84.

Stella Stevens in How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life (1968)

I did the best I could with the tools I had and the opportunities given me. My life was screwed up early by getting pregnant at 15 and married, then a baby at 16, then divorced at 17. But in spite of that start, I&#39;ve done all right.

It&#39;s been my heart&#39;s desire to direct since I started doing movies. I directed two films in the &#39;70s and &#39;80s. One was a feature-length documentary. But I&#39;ve still not made my debut with a big film. I&#39;m working on doing that now... So why has it taken me so long? Because it was hard as a &quot;sexpot&quot;, as I was labeled in the &#39;60s and &#39;70s, to have people take me seriously as a producer or director. They would rather see me without my clothes on.

[working with Elvis] I wish I&#39;d never worked with Elvis. Sometimes you meet someone who could be your idol; but, after the meeting, you&#39;re so disappointed that you don&#39;t like them anymore.

I am basically a comedienne, I always have been. The sex [in her films] has always been &#39;comedy sex&#39;. A lot of the serious dramatic roles I&#39;ve played, I&#39;ve thought to myself, &#39;Oh God, they were dreary.&#39; I like the pacing of comedy, the excitement of it.

[on regretting her 1960 Playboy Playmate magazine shoot] I had been dropped from my contract at 20th Century Fox, didn&#39;t know a soul in Los Angeles and had a child to support.

Quotes

Stella Stevens

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