Content Warning: This article contains discussions of suicide. Please read with care.
Inger Stevens, born Ingrid Strensland, was a Swedish-born actress best known for her role as Katy in the sitcom The Farmer’s Daughter, which ran for three seasons from 1963 until 1966. Stevens also had guest appearances in other notable shows, such as The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
Stevens was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1934. Her father moved to Manhattan, Kansas, and she followed when she was 13 years old. After high school, Stevens traveled to New York where she met entertainment agent Tony Soglio. The two married in 1955, but the union ended in divorce just three years later. Her relationship may have failed, but she was successful in her career. However, she described herself as a “hard luck girl.”
Inger Stevens’ death
Stevens had been through a lot in her short life, which some may attribute to bad luck. She suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning while filming the 1958 noir film Cry Terror!, and she ended up with a dislocated jaw while working on a TV show. Stevens also had a near-death experience when the plane she was on crashed and exploded less than a minute after she deplaned.
Stevens experienced bouts of depression, which she shared in an interview a few years before her death. “I came from a broken home, my marriage was a disaster, and I am constantly feeling lonely,” the actress said. On New Year’s Day in 1959, she attempted to take her own life by ingesting ammonia and sleeping pills. She survived but ended up having blood clots and was temporarily blind for weeks.
On April 30, 1970, Stevens’ friend, Lola McNally, who had been renting a room from the actress in her Laurel Canyon house, went home to find her friend on the kitchen floor. Stevens barely clung to consciousness and fluttered her eyes but wasn’t able to speak. McNally called emergency services, but Stevens died en route to the hospital. At the time of her death, she was slated to start filming for a new TV show. Her cause of death was determined to be acute barbiturate poisoning and her manner of death was ruled a suicide. She was 35 years old.
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