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. When Hart noted her shock that the “Burning Love” crooner had actually stopped by the festivities, “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,’” Shepard remembered.
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.’”
Outside of her films opposite the King, Shepard was a prolific TV actress, embarking on her performing journey in 1949 and landing her on-screen debut in 1952 on Fireside Theatre. Two years later, she was in her first small screen Western, Death Valley Days. Among her numerous credits are: The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Loretta Young Show, Public Defender, The Lone Ranger, Tales of the Texas Rangers, Private Secretary, Waterfront, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Highway Patrol, Tombstone Territory, Rawhide, Gunslinger, Lawman, Laramie, The F.B.I., Ironside and many others. She had arcs on Gunsmoke (four episodes), Perry Mason (four episodes) and The Virginian (five episodes), as well as a long-running appearance spanning over 250 episodes in CBS’ 1960s soap opera The Clear Horizon. Her final credited role was in The Rookies in 1973.
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.
Of Sicilian ancestry, Josephine Angela Sorbello was born March 19, 1928, in Quakertown, Penn. In high school, she appeared in plays and was a cheerleader, drum majorette and valedictorian. She moved to Los Angeles ahead of 1950, joining the Ben Bard Players theater group and honing her skills at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Her husband was Wyatt Earp actor Ray Boyle, whom she married in 1954. He died at age 98 in 2022. She is survived by her son Brandon Boyle.
