Jan Shepard Dies: ‘King Creole’ Actress Was 96

deadline.com:

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. 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 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.