Connie Stevens

Connie Stevens (born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingoglia; August 8, 1938) is an American actress and traditional pop singer. Born in Brooklyn to musician parents, Stevens was raised there until the age of 12, when she was sent to live with family friends in rural Missouri. In 1953, when she was 15 years old, Stevens relocated with her father to Los Angeles.

She began her career in 1957, making her feature film debut in Young and Dangerous, before releasing her debut album, Concetta, the following year. She had a supporting role in the musical comedy Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958) opposite Jerry Lewis, followed by the drama film The Party Crashers (also 1958) opposite Frances Farmer.

Stevens gained widespread recognition for her portrayal of "Cricket" Blake on the ABC TV Warner Brothers series Hawaiian Eye, beginning in 1959 opposite Robert Conrad and Anthony Eisley. She garnered concurrent musical success when her single "Sixteen Reasons" became a national radio hit, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and at #9 on the UK Singles Chart in 1960. Stevens continued to appear in film and television throughout the 1970s and 1980s, as well as performing as a musical nightclub act.

Stevens' later film roles include in the comedies Tapeheads (1988) and Love Is All There Is (1996). In 2009, Stevens made her directorial debut with the feature film Saving Grace B. Jones, which she also wrote and produced, based partly on elements of her own childhood.

Stevens was born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingoglia in Brooklyn, New York City, on August 8, 1938, the daughter of musician Peter Ingoglia (known as Teddy Stevens) and singer Eleanor McGinley. Stevens is of Jewish, Italian and Irish descent. She adopted her father's stage name of Stevens as her own. Her parents divorced and she lived with her grandparents and attended Catholic boarding schools. Actor John Megna was her maternal half-brother.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.