Biography for
Brinke Stevens More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

20 September 1954, San Diego, California, USA

Birth Name

Charlene Elizabeth Brinkeman

Height

5' 4" (1.63 m)

Spouse

Dave Stevens

(1980 - 1981) (divorced)

Trivia

Earned master's degree in marine biology before becoming a model, actress, and, ultimately, scream queen.

Double-majored in biology and psychology at San Diego State University.

Studied seven foreign languages.

Received her masters degree in marine biology from Scripps Institue of Oceanography in La Jolla, California in 1977.

Appeared in 2001 and 2002 at the Horrorfind convention in Baltimore, Maryland.

Did very well at her first audition for The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), and director Amy Holden Jones wanted to cast her in one of the lead roles. However, Brinke had to fly up to Lake Tahoe for a modeling assignment during the middle of their shooting schedule and had to accept a lesser part.

Measurements: 33 1/2B-22-33 (measured in 1997), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Worked as an environmental consultant for a nuclear power plant near San Diego from 1979 to 1981.

Longtime friend of Linnea Quigley.

Interviewed in the book "Invasion of the B-Girls" by Jewel Shepard.

Interviewed in the book "Assault of the Killer B's" by Jason Paul Collumn (McFarland, 2004).

Married to comic book artist Dave Stevens for only six months, but following their divorce she kept his surname. The two remained friends until his death in 2008.

Wears a size 8 shoe.

Considers Haunting Fear to be her finest dramatic performance and has named it as her favorite of her films in several interviews.

Ranked number 18 on Celebrity Sleuth magazine's list of the 50 Best Celebrity Butts of all time. (Celebrity Sleuth Volume 9, Number 5 The Living End).

Brinke appeared nude, with her gloved hands strategically covering certain parts of her anatomy, on the cover of the first issue of Femme Fatales magazine.

When Dave Stevens was working on his "Rocketeer" comic, main character Cliff Secord's girlfriend was a pin-up model named "Bettie" - as portrayed there, her face was that of 1950s nude/bondage model Bettie Page (and was a major factor in bringing Bettie back to notoriety) - but her body was Brinke Stevens.

Appeared as herself in the novel Bad Moon Rising by multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry. In the novel she and other celebrities are in the town of Pine Deep for a Halloween festival when monsters attack. Other guests in the book include Debbie Rochon, Stephen Susco, James Gunn, Joe Bob Briggs, Jim O'Rear, Ken Foree, and blues singer Mem Shannon.

Has a younger brother, Kerry Charles Brinkeman, who is a top level chemist living in Illinois.

Personal Quotes

About Teenage Exorcist (1991), a movie she co-wrote and starred in: "I go from a demure co-ed to a whip-cracking dominatrix from hell. There are savage, scale-eyed zombies, virgin sacrifices and demonic possessions and, when I turn into a gorgeous, va-voom woman, I say the line I've always wanted to say, 'Behold the new queen of hell!" And I say it with relish".

"I'm convinced only two planetary species actually have 'souls' -- humans and cetaceans (whales & dolphins).

I'm a healthy, red-blooded American girl with no particular hangups like shyness. I don't seek out nude work, but it's there, face it, and if you want to work as an actress in Hollywood it helps to be able to roll with it. I'm comfortable enough working sans clothing, after my fine past experiences with some of the most outstanding glamor photographers in the world. In my perspective, a beautiful female body is a precious gift ... to hide it away shows a lack of proper appreciation. Years from now, when I look back on the photographs and movies I did as a lovely young woman, I know I'll be glad I had the good sense to take advantage of my assets and opportunities instead of wasting them.

A fan once told me, "Brinke, you're just a big a nerd as the rest of us. You're just better looking."

Nudity never really bothered me. I came to expect it early on. It's a little bit annoying when the only reason that you're hired is to be the girl who will take her clothes off. If it is incorporated into a good acting part, I don't really mind doing it. I like my body; I'm comfortable with it. Apparently, other people like looking at it, too. No one ever says, "Hey, put your clothes back on."

I've probably done more shower scenes than any actress in history. I've done so many that I'm probably the cleanest actress in Hollywood.

In Dark Romances, I'm strapped to a torture device, like a rack. To show my agony, they have close-ups of my face, close-ups of my hands clenching and unclenching and also close-ups of my feet pointing and unpointing as I'm stretched on the the rack. I had to admit when I saw that footage that even my feet have talent!

My aim isn't to become a great Shakespearean actor. I simply want to have steady work and have some fun along the way. I don't take it all that seriously, which is probably why I have fun playing the sexy, bad girl roles.

The 1980s was a very special decade, and it truly made my career what it is today. At that time, the low-budget, independent horror films we were making were totally unique.

Salary

Crazy Animal (2007) (V)	$1,000/day
Nightmare Sisters (1988)	$400