The Shelley Fabares Movies That Put Her Alongside Elvis Presley

Shelley Fabares, the actor known for The Donna Reed Show, Coach, and Elvis Presley movies, died this weekend in Los Angeles. She was 82.

“To her family and friends, Shelley was a source of love, strength, laughter, and comfort,” the family said in a statement (via Deadline). “She was a devoted wife, cherished stepmother, daughter, sister, niece, aunt, family member, and loyal friend whose warmth, generosity, humor, and grace made an enduring difference in the lives of everyone who knew her. She had a remarkable ability to make people feel welcomed, valued, and cared for.”

She was also the singer of the 1962 No. 1 "Johnny Angel." Later, she went on to play opposite James Caan in the TV feature Brian’s Song.

On Donna Reed, she played Mary Stone, the TV family’s high-school daughter.

“I think the years on The Donna Reed Show, the years from 14 to 19, were so incredibly important,” Fabares told the Los Angeles Times in 1993 (via WMTW). “Donna Reed was simply an extraordinary woman, a woman of great strength, kindness, integrity and compassion. I am not trying to make her sound like a saint, but she had the most profound influence on me. I carry her with me today.”

Much of her experience was impressive and important, but today we want to focus on the fact that she was the only actor ever to play Elvis Presley's leading lady in three feature films (Girl Happy from 1965, Spinout from 1966, and Clambake from 1967).

In a 2024 interview with Cryptic Rock, Fabares said, "Those were wonderful experiences. I ended up doing three pictures with Elvis, and that was wonderful. We always knew doing the pictures that they weren’t good, but we had a wonderful time doing them. Getting to do three with him was amazing fun. We had a wonderful time doing that."

Why She Worked Well with Elvis

Elvis was, as you probably know, a megastar in the ‘50s and ‘60s. By the mid-1960s, the musician was on his 18th feature film. He was cranking them out at a pace that would be incredibly dizzying today. His manager, the notorious Colonel Tom Parker, had created a kind of factory system for feature musicals. Shoot them fast, use them to sell soundtrack albums, repeat.

Any costars, including a leading lady, would have to work at this breakneck pace and deliver everything the film needed, much like a romance lead in a Lifetime film. Support the romance beats, give good reactions, sing if necessary… and don’t outshine Elvis.

Fabares, with her background in TV from the age of 14 on Donna Reed, ultimately working on 192 episodes, was able to perform this role for Elvis across multiple films.

From the outside, she seemed very focused on the work. She married record producer Lou Adler in 1964, which she and others suggested took the pressure off both her and Elvis. No tabloid rumors to really deal with between them.

And the public liked her. Spectrum Culture later described her as "one of Presley's most endearing and engaging leading ladies."

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Girl Happy

Fabares joined this 1965 MGM film directed by Boris Sagal. Elvis plays Chicago bandleader Rusty Wells, hired by a mob boss to chaperone the boss' daughter, Valerie (Fabares), on spring break in glamorous Fort Lauderdale.

She had just left Donna Reed in 1963 with her character’s graduation to college.

"The first day of shooting [Girl Happy], I'm on the set. Something was happening, and I didn't know what it was," she said at an event in 2013. "And I looked over, and it was Elvis. He was walking in. He wasn't doing anything. He was just walking in. The presence that this man had … you couldn't talk. Nobody did anything. You just sort of stopped. And I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God. It's Elvis Presley. I'm never going to be able to open my mouth around him.'"

Clearly, she did all right. Later that year, on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, a newly married Fabares said of Elvis, “He's a very, very nice person. He's the epitome of a Southern gentleman.”

She added her husband didn't mind the kiss because it was "just her job."

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Spinout

A year later, their second film was directed by Norman Taurog, who directed more Elvis films than any other.

In this one, Elvis plays a racecar driver and band leader (of course) who is pursued by three women. Fabares plays spoiled rich girl Cynthia Foxhugh, with Diane McBain and Deborah Walley rounding out the cast.

Race sequences were shot in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium in March 1966, which Fabares particularly enjoyed. She said, per the Elvis.com.au archive:

"I was absolutely thrilled to be there. I had been a lifelong baseball fan and a lifelong Dodger fan, so I was very excited just to be in the parking lot of [Dodger Stadium]. For me, it was just exciting to be there."

Fun fact: Rita Wilson makes an uncredited, minor appearance as a "Bit Girl" in this film.

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Clambake

Their last film together was released in 1967. Elvis stars as an oil heir who swaps identities with a water-ski instructor (Will Hutchins) to test whether he can be loved for his personality. Very much like The Prince and the Pauper, right? Fabares plays socialite (and admitted gold digger) Dianne Carter.

Many consider this film to be their weakest together. Production was stalled for a couple of weeks after Elvis fell at home, and on set the artist was growing disillusioned.

According to biographer Peter Guralnick (via Spectrum Culture), Elvis was so bored with the Colonel Parker machine by this point that he launched into rants on set. He said in one of them, "You know, those masters of yours have hidden motives. They're trying to control people's minds and use them for their own damn purposes."

He reportedly called this his worst movie.

Fabares would go on to Coach (and two Emmy nominations), One Day at a Time, Brian's Song, and decades of voice work in animation.

But those three Elvis films, modest as she herself said they were, are the ones that put her in the American pop-cultural spotlight.