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3 items from 2011

8 July 2011 5:43 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Alluring actor in a string of glossy Hollywood movies in the 1950s

The seductive brunette Elaine Stewart, who has died aged 81, may have lacked that ineffable essence that makes up star quality, but she had enough allure to attract attention in several glossy Hollywood movies in the 1950s, both in leading parts and noteworthy supporting roles. Among the best of the latter were her brief though memorable appearances in two films directed by Vincente Minnelli.

She was both bad and beautiful in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) as Lila, a wannabe film star, hoping to make it by sleeping with Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), the studio head. When told that Shields is a great man, Lila responds, "There are no great men, buster. There's only men." The scene which lingers most in the mind is when Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), who has just triumphed in a Shields movie, leaves a »

- Ronald Bergan

29 June 2011 8:26 AM, PDT | MUBI | See recent MUBI news »

"Elaine Stewart, 81, an actress who appeared in a string of films in the 1950s and after taking a break to start a family appeared on the 1970s TV game shows Gambit and High Rollers, died Monday," reports the Los Angeles Times.

Mike Barnes in the Hollywood Reporter: "In a pair of 1954 films, Stewart starred opposite Gene Kelly and Van Johnson as nonstop talkative socialite Jane Ashton in Brigadoon and played a sexy harem princess in The Adventures of Hajji Baba, with John Derek as the title character. The former model and Montclair, NJ, native also appeared with Kirk Douglas in the classic Hollywood insider soap The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and with Richard Widmark and Karl Malden in the basic-training set Take the High Ground! (1953)."

Images above: March 23, 1953 cover of Life; and James Stewart, Elaine Stewart and director James Neilson on the set of Night Passage (1957).

Update, 6/29: David Ehrenstein »

28 June 2011 9:25 AM, PDT | Huffington Post | See recent Huffington Post news »

Los Angeles — Elaine Stewart, a leading lady in a series of films in the 1950s, including "Brigadoon," and star of the 1970s game shows "Gambit" and "High Rollers," has died. She was 81.

Her agent Fred Wostbrock told the Los Angeles Times that Stewart died Monday at her home in Beverly Hills after a long illness.

Stewart was born Elsy Steinberg. Her first starring role came in the 1953 crime drama "Code Two." She also appeared in the films "The Adventures of Hajji Baba," "The Tattered Dress" and "Night Passage."

In the 1960s, she was in several TV shows including "Bat Masterson," "Burke's Law" and "Perry Mason."

Stewart is survived by her husband, the game show producer Merrill Heatter, and two children. »

- AP

3 items from 2011