Recalling Inger Stevens

I just this moment finished watching a 1957 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents featuring actress Inger Stevens and was struck once again by her beauty and her unexplained death. It was ruled a suicide, but the reason why she took her own life has never been fully explained to my satisfaction. All that has been said was that she was found by her housekeeper lying face down on her kitchen floor on the morning of April 30, 1970. A medical examiner said she overdosed on alcohol mixed with something called Tedral, commonly prescribed to those suffering from asthma, emphysema and bronchitis to help with their breathing.

She was only 23 when she made the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode I watched and only 35 when she died. Her biggest claim to fame would come in the mid-60s when in the television series, The Farmers Daughter, a show for which she won a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination, but one which escaped my attention because I was living in various spots in Europe at that time. Upon my return to the United States, I was captivated by her as Richard Widmark’s wife in the gritty police film Madigan which also starred Henry Fonda.

I have always believed the medical examiner rushed to judgment simply because Stevens tried to commit suicide once before, in 1959, following a failed romance with Bing Crosby. However, according to one source, she came out of that episode “a stronger, wiser person,” who characterized that suicide attempt as one of “the stupidest things I have ever done.”

Consider the fact that not one member of her family nor any of her friends believe she killed herself. Of course, that alone could be labeled “denial” by those closest to her. But also consider she had just signed a contract to star in another television series produced by Aaron Spelling, that she had just purchased clothes she wanted to wear on the program and that she had committed to appearing at an MGM auction three days after her body was discovered.

Anyway, just some thoughts on Inger Stevens, a beautiful, talented and tragic actress.