Key Points
Starred in numerous TV Westerns across 1950s and 1960s
Appeared in two Elvis Presley movies
Memorable guest roles on classic television shows
Versatile actress with extensive Hollywood career
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Shepard died on January 17 at Providence St Joseph Medical Center in Burbank of pneumonia brought on by respiratory failure. Her son Hollywood prop master, Brandon Boyle, confirmed the demise.
"She was a good one and will be dearly missed," he said.
Jan Shepard is best known for guest-starring on Rawhide, The Virginian, Gunsmoke and two dozen other TV Westerns. She portrayed Mimi, the sister of Presley's Danny Fisher, in the Michael Curtiz-directed King Creole (1958) and the wife of Danny Kohana (James Shigeta), who partners with Presley's Rick Richards in a helicopter business, in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966).
Her big-screen resume also included the cult B-movie Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959), directed by Bernard L Kowalski and produced by brothers Gene and Roger Corman for American International Pictures.
In 1954, the delightful Shepard appeared in her first TV Western, the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days, and followed by getting dusty on The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Lone Ranger, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Tales of the Texas Rangers, Rawhide, Tombstone Territory, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Bat Masterson, Gunsmoke (four episodes), Laramie, Lawman, The Virginian (five episodes) and The High Chaparral, among others.
