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Jan Shepard Dies: ‘King Creole’ Actress Was 96
Jan Shepard, who acted opposite Elvis Presley in King Creole and Paradise, Hawaiian Style, and appeared in more than 30 TV Westerns, has died.
Jan Shepard, who acted opposite Elvis Presley in 1958’s King Creole and 1966’s Paradise, Hawaiian Style, and appeared in more than 30 TV Westerns, died Jan. 17 at a hospital in Burbank, Calif. of pneumonia brought on by respiratory failure. Describing him as a “big teddy bear,” Shepard once recalled that he gave her a pair of 10-cent earrings as a joke before gifting her a stuffed tiger for her birthday at a surprise party thrown by co-star, good friend (and eventual goddaughter) Dolores Hart, who played Presley’s love interest in King Creole. In addition to her television roles, Shepard was in 1959’s cult B-movie Attack of the Giant Leeches and 1962’s Third of a Man, an acclaimed movie about mental illness that also starred James Drury.
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