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 at a hospital in Burbank, Calif. of pneumonia brought on by respiratory failure. She was 96.
In King Creole, noted as Presley’s favorite of his films, she portrayed his on-screen sister Mimi. Eight years later, Shepard played Presley’s business partner’s wife in the ’60s buddy musical comedy. In an interview from last year, Shepard said she wasn’t a fan of Presley’s ahead of working with him, but “once I met him, I just adored him.”
Per an official obituary, Presley and Shepard got on well and went to off-set lunches (where Marlon Brando once made a chance appearance). 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. (Steeped in old Hollywood, she was also Gunsmoke star Amanda Blake’s roommate.)
Shepard also said that Presley regarded her as a sister in real life and wished the two were related. When Hart noted her shock that the “Burning Love” crooner had actually stopped by the festivities, Shepard commented, “He said I had to come, ‘She’s my sister. I wouldn’t miss her birthday party.’ I ran into him in the studio. He said to me, ‘I hear Elvis was at your birthday party.’ ‘Yeah, he was.’ He said, ‘You know he never goes anywhere, people go to him, he never goes to other people’s homes.’”
Recalling her first time meeting Presley at a doctor’s office ahead of filming the musical drama, she said, laughing: “In walks Elvis with two of his buddies. I looked at him and he looked at me and we started to laugh. His jacket was the identical material and color of my slacks. He looked at me and he said, ‘Honey, I’m either going to have to give you my jacket or you’re going to have to give me your pants.’”