BIOGRAPHY:

Inger Stevens (October 18, 1934 – April 30, 1970 [1]) was a Swedish-American movie and TV actress.
Early life Inger Stevens was born Ingrid Stensland in Stockholm, Sweden. As a child she was often ill. When she was nine, her parents divorced and she moved with her father to New York City.[citation needed] At age 13 she and her father moved to Manhattan, Kansas, where she attended Manhattan High School. At 16 she worked in burlesque shows in Kansas City. At 18 she left Kansas for New York City where she worked as a chorus girl, and in the Garment District while taking classes at the Actors Studio.
Career Stevens appeared on television series, commercials and in plays, until she got her big break in the movie Man on Fire starring Bing Crosby.
Roles in major films followed, but she achieved her greatest success in the ABC television series The Farmer's Daughter, with William Windom. Previously, Stevens appeared in episodes of Bonanza, Route 66, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Eleventh Hour, Sam Benedict and The Twilight Zone.

Personal life Her first husband was her agent, Anthony Soglio, to whom she was married from 1955 to 1957. From 1961 until her death she secretly was married to Ike Jones, an African-American actor. In addition to these marriages she also had been romantically linked with Bing Crosby, Anthony Quinn, Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Harry Belafonte, Mario Lanza, and Burt Reynolds.
Death On the morning of April 30, 1970, Stevens' sometime roommate and companion, Lola McNally, found Stevens on the kitchen floor of her Hollywood Hills home. According to McNally, when she called Stevens' name, Stevens opened her eyes, lifted her head and tried to speak, but was unable to make any sound. McNally told police that she had spoken to Stevens the previous night, without any sign that anything was wrong. Stevens died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. On arrival, medics removed a small bandage from her chin that revealed a small amount of what appeared to be fresh blood oozing from a cut, which appeared to have been a few hours old. Los Angeles County Coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi attributed Stevens' death to "acute barbiturate poisoning".[2]

TRIVIA:

A 1952 graduate of Manhattan (KS) High School, she is being inducted into the MHS Hall of Fame, along with classmate 'Del Close' (qv) (January 2007).
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' (qv). The marriage, for obvious reasons, was kept under wraps to protect her career. They were estranged at the time she died.
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.
A month after her death, her widower, 'Ike Jones' (qv), 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 children's charities and mental health organizations.
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' (qv) were nearly asphyxiated by carbon monoxide fumes while filming a scene from _Cry Terror! (1958)_ (qv) 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.
When she died in 1970, she left an estate estimated at $162,000.
Was romantically involved with 'Bing Crosby' (qv) during and after they appeared together in _Man on Fire (1957)_ (qv). The relationship never led to marriage because Stevens refused to convert to Catholicism. When Crosby married 'Kathryn Grant (I)' (qv), who had converted a year or two later, Stevens was devastated.
Was in the running but lost out on the role of Holly Golightly in _Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)_ (qv) to 'Audrey Hepburn' (qv).

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