Connie Stevens

Connie Stevens (born August 8, 1938) is an American actress and singer. She was born Concetta Rosalie Anna Ingoglia in Brooklyn, New York, a daughter of Peter Ingoglia (known as musician Teddy Stevens) and singer Eleanor McGinley. Connie adopted her father's stage name of Stevens as her own. Her parents were divorced and she lived with grandparents. Coming from a musical family, she formed a singing group called The Fourmost, the other three vocalists went on to fame as The Lettermen. In 1953, Stevens moved to Los Angeles with her father. When she was sixteen, she started another singing group, The Three Debs. She enrolled at a professional school (Georgia Massey's School of Song and Dance in Los Angeles), sang professionally and appeared in local repertory theater. Stevens then started working as a movie extra. After appearing in four B movies, Jerry Lewis saw her in Dragstrip Riot and cast her in Rock-A-Bye Baby. Soon after that, she signed a contract with Warner Brothers. She played 'Cricket Blake' in the popular Television detective series Hawaiian Eye from 1959 to 1962, a role that made her famous. In a televised interview on August 26, 2003, on CNN's Larry King Live, Stevens recounted that while on the set of Hawaiian Eye she was told she had a telephone call from Elvis Presley. She didn't believe it, but in fact it was Elvis, inviting her to a party, saying he would come to her house and pick her up personally. They dated for a time and she says they remained lifelong friends. Her first album was titled Concetta (1958). She had minor hits with the songs Blame It On My Youth, Looking For A Boy, and Spring Is Here. She appeared opposite James Garner in a comedy episode of the TV western series Maverick entitled "Two Tickets to Ten Strike," and after making several appearances on the Warner Bros. hit TV series 77 Sunset Strip, she recorded the hit novelty song Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb, a duet with one of the shows stars, Edward Byrnes. She also recorded the hit single Sixteen Reasons (1960). It hit the top five in both Billboard and Cashbox.