K.T. Stevens (born Gloria Wood;[1] July 20, 1919 – June 13, 1994) was an American film and television actress.
Early years
Born in Hollywood,[2] Stevens was the daughter of film producer and director Sam Wood.[3] She made her first film appearance when she was just two years old in her father's second silent film, Peck's Bad Boy (1921).
As an adult, she changed her name to K.T. Stevens to distance herself from her father's fame. She initially called herself Katherine Stevens, which people often shorted to Katie, leading to the final version with the initials K.T.[4]
Stage
Stevens gained theatrical experience by doing summer stock theatre in Skowhegan, Maine.[4] Her Broadway credits include The Land Is Bright, Yankee Point, Nine Girls and Laura.[5]
Stevens acted on episodic television in such series as Crossroads, The Rebel, The Brothers Brannagan, and appeared on the daytime soap operas General Hospital as part of the original cast (1963–1965), portraying Peggy Mercer who was engaged to Dr. Steve Hardy, Julie Olson's mother-in-law Helen Martin (1966–1967, 1969) on Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless (1976–1981) as the veiled, facially burned Vanessa Prentiss. In the episode "New Neighbors" of the sitcom I Love Lucy, she played opposite Hayden Rorke as television actors who Lucy Ricardo mistakenly believes are foreign secret agents.
Stevens appeared in 1957 and again in 1961 in different roles on The Real McCoys. In 1959, she made her first of three guest appearances on Perry Mason as murder victim Ethel Garvin in "The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom." In 1962, she played Margit Bruner in "The Case of the Ancient Romeo," and in 1965, she played Alice Munford in "The Case of the Hasty Honeymooner." In this episode, she was featured as the wife of murderer Guy Munford, played by her then husband Hugh Marlowe. In 1961, she played Ada Kihlgren in "The Broken Wing", one of the latter episodes of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. The same year, she appeared as Lorraine Miller in "A Great Day for a Scoundrel" on The DuPont Show with June Allyson. Between 1960 and 1963, she guest-starred five times on The Rifleman.[citation needed]
Stevens married actor Hugh Marlowe on May 7, 1946, in San Francisco.[6] They had two sons, Jeffrey and Christian.[1] The couple divorced in 1968.[citation needed]
Stevens and Marlowe acted in the Broadway production of Laura in which, credited as "A Girl" so as not to alert the audience, she played the title role (acted by Gene Tierney in the 1944 film Laura).
Stevens died at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on June 13, 1994, aged 74, after battling lung cancer.[1]
