Michele "Shelley" Fabares was born on January 19, 1944 in Santa Monica, California. Shelley already had a touch of show business in her family, since her aunt was the well-known musical comedy star Nanette Fabray. Shelley's big break in Hollywood was in 1958 when she started playing Donna Reed's daughter on The Donna Reed Show. After this, Shelley made a small appearance in the 1964 movie
Ride the Wild Surf with Barbara Eden. Fabares was already big
in Hollywood, but now she was about to encounter the King.
Shelley Fabares eventually made 3 movies with Elvis Presley and had a lot of fun making them. Elvis himself said that Shelley was his
favorite of all the
actresses he had worked with on screen.Fabares' first movie with Presley was the 1965's, Girl Happy. In this film Shelley's character is Valerie Frank, daughter of a tough nightclub owner. As the movie begins, "Big Frank" is concerned because Valerie wants to go to Fort Lauderdale with her
girl
friends for spring break. Big Frank appoints Elvis and his band ~ who just happen to be performing at his nightclub ~ to follow Valerie and (secretly) make sure she doesn't get into any trouble. As chaperoning mishaps ensue, Elvis "can't help falling in love" with his charge. He entertains with some great new songs, such as Puppet On a String and Do the Clam. The Shelley / Elvis chemistry was such a success, that they paired again in 1966 for "Spinout.
In Spinout Shelley plays "Cynthia", a rich, spoiled "Daddy's
Girl
". Shelley, Deborah Walley, and Diane McBain are all out to get Elvis as their husband, but he enjoys playing the field, saying he is not the marrying kind. Spinout comes equipped with a selection of rockin' Elvis songs.
Fabares' third and final film with Presley was the 1967 hit, Clambake. Here Elvis plays a rich guy who trades places with a water-skiing instructor in order to escape his controlling father. Shelley's character dumps boyfriend Bill Bixby to pair up with Elvis. A few of the featured songs are Clambake and Confidence.
Shelley Fabares went on to even greater fame and popularity by costarring on such television shows as The Brian Keith Show and the hit sitcom, Coach. She is happily married to M*A*S*H's Mike Farrell.
Click here to see my Shelley Fabares autograph.
San Francisco. When Bixby got older he decided he wanted
to try a career in acting , so he moved to Los Angeles. As Bill
was working at a Hollywood Hotel, a Detriot advertising
executive asked him if he would like to for auto ads.
Of course Bill said yes and he then went to Detroit for a year.
After returning to Los Angeles, an agent saw him in a play
and signed him. This led him to many TV appearances on
shows as The Twilight Zone and Doctor Kildare. The next
thing in Bill Bixby’s life, was what really made him famous.
In 1962, Bill started playing the character Tim O’Hara on
the TV Show My Favorite Martian.
After doing My Favorite
Martian and other shows, Bill had been chosen to star in not
only one , but 2 Elvis movies. They were Clambake and
Speedway. In those movies, Bill not only got to star with Elvis,
but also Shelley Fabares and Nancy Sinatra.
After his Elvis
movies, Bill starred on another popular sitcom, The Courtship
of Eddie’s Father in which he played the lead role. After The
Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Bixby appeared in many television
shows and movies including The Incredible Hulk TV movies.On November 21, 1993, Bixby passed away after a valiant battle with cancer. At that time he had been working for the new TV series Blossom.
Will Hutchins was born in Los Angeles, California, on May 5, 1932. His birth name
was Marshall Lowell Hutchason. Hutchins later went on to school at Pomona College and
UCLA. During this time he also spent two years as an Army Cryptographer. After all this,
Will was offered a contract at Warner Brothers. Of course he took the offer and Hutchins
began to star on the western television series Sugarfoot. With the popularity of
the show, Will got the chance to co-star in many things including guest appearacnes on
the television shows Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip and his first film,
Lafayette Escadrille. After his work in two more films, No Time For
Sergeants with Andy Griffith and Claudelle Inglish with fellow Elvis co-star
Diane McBain (Spinout), Hutchins was sent to the Philippines where he would
re-fight World War II for his next movie, Merrill’s Marauders. For the next two
years, Will was on the road doing the Broadway play Never Too Late.
When Hutchins returned to Hollywood, he was chosen to co-star in Elvis Presley’s next two films Spinout and Clambake . In Spinout Will played Lt. Tracy Richards, an officer who falls for Deborah Walley’s character, Les; and in Clambake he played Elvis’ buddy Tom Wilson/Scott Hayward.
Following his work with the King, Hutchins did the movie The Shooting with Jack Nicholson and Elvis co-star Millie Perkins (Wild in the Country). Will also landed starring roles on two more television shows, Hey Landlord! and Blonde. For the rest of his career, Hutchins mostly did TV movies but also traveled around the world doing things such as Tippy Hedren’s film Roar. To date, Will’s last acting appearance was in the movie Gunfighter.
Today, Hutchins is married and working at NBC. When recently asked about Elvis, Will’s response was “Best and most fun actor I’ve ever had the honor to work with”, and says that of the two Elvis movies he made, Clambake was the most fun.
Click here to see my Will Hutchins autograph.| Charro! | Double Trouble | Easy Come, Easy Go | Flaming Star | Follow That Dream |
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