Golden Age Hollywood actress Jan Shepard dead at 96
Jan Shepard, who starred alongside Elvis Presley twice, has passed away at the age of 96.
Golden Age Hollywood actress Jan Shepard, who acted alongside Elvis, has died at the age of 96.
The screen star passed away on January 17 after battling pneumonia and respiratory failure.
Born Josephine Angela Sorbello in 1928, Jan trained at the Pasadena Playhouse and ended up becoming a secretary at an I. Magnin department to afford the $25 rent on her Hollywood Boulevard apartment, which she shared with future co-star Amanda Blake.
Jan starred alongside the late King of Rock and Roll – who died of a heart attack in 1977, at the age of 42 – in 1958’s ‘King Creole’ and 1966’s ‘Paradise, Hawaiian Style’.
She previously told Elvis Australia of her first encounter with the ‘Suspicious Minds’ hitmaker: "I went in the office and I was waiting to be called in.
"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 colour 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.’”
In the 1999 tome ‘Westerns Women’, she called Elvis the “cutest kid around” and a “big teddy bear”.
She said: “The first time, I found him to be just the cutest kid around, a big teddy bear, a lot of fun.”
However, after he was discharged from the US Army in 1960, she admitted he was a “changed” man.
Jan added: “He’d come back from the service and had changed. He had a lot of bodyguards around him.”
The actress was also known for westerns including ‘Rawhide’, with Clint Eastwood, ‘The Virginian’ and ‘Gunsmoke’, with former roommate Amanda, as well as playing Nurse Betty in the syndicated series ‘Dr. Christian’.
Jan was married to fellow actor, Ray Boyle, for 67 years from 1954 until his death from pneumonia in 2022, at the age of 98.
In a tribute to his late mother, their son, Brandon Boyle, told The Hollywood Reporter. “She was a good one and will be dearly missed.”
