Elaine Stewart enjoys a privilege few film-fatales can lay claim to – she accepts screen roles only when they excite her, because she doesn't need the money.
She has interests in four Texas oil wells, real estate in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs, a portfolio over-flowing with good dividend-playing stocks. "A lot of people told me I was crazy to invest in oil," she laughs, "but my bank in Abilene will tell you different." That's why – although she's made stunning appearances in The Bad and the Beautiful, Take the High Ground, Brigadoon, Night Passage and many other films, playing opposite such stalwarts of the cinema as Kirk Douglas, Richard Widmark, James Stewart, Victor Mature – she does it for kicks, not for cash.
But this doesn't mean Elaine's attitude toward acting is that of the casual hobbyist or dilettante. She approaches her hand-picked acting assignments like a professional, seriously and with dedication. "When I first came to Hollywood," she recollects, "I got some pretty unrealistic coaching. It was the year everybody stopped wearing bras and girdles under their dresses and went around saying 'Ooooh, darling' with rounded lips. But that isn't my idea of acting. Life isn't 'Ooooh, darling' all the time." These are the perspicacious words of a bright girl, not sour grapes, for – as these exclusive Playboy photographs attest – Miss Stewart can make a good showing in the un-undied league any time she chooses. She seldom chooses, because she doesn't need pin-up publicity any more than she needs money, and she consented to this rare unveiling before the Playboy lens for exactly the same reason she accepts screen roles: just for the fun of it.
These revealing photographs of film star Elaine Stewart, taken in her home in Beverly Hills, were sanctioned because she personally felt "Playboy's pictures are always in the best possible taste and I think it would be fun to pose for you."
These revealing photographs of film star Elaine Stewart, taken in her home in Beverly Hills, were sanctioned because she personally felt "Playboy's picture are always in the best possible taste and I think it would be fun to pose for you."
