Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
(born Priscilla Ann Wagner; May 24, 1945) is an
American
actress and businesswoman.
She is the ex-wife of singer and actor
Elvis Presley, and the mother of
singer/songwriter
Lisa Marie
Presley. Priscilla is the founder of
Elvis Presley Enterprises, where
she served as
chairman of the
board from 1982 to 1998.
As an actress, Priscilla is best known for co-starring with
Leslie Nielsen in the three
successful
Naked Gun films, and
for her five-year run playing the character
Jenna Wade on the television series
Dallas.
Ancestry and early life
Presley's
grandfather, Albert Henry Iversen, emigrated from Egersund
in Norway
to the
United States in the beginning of the 1900s. He married
Lorraine Davis, who was of
Scots-Irish and
English descent. They had three children:
Albert Jr. (March 1922), James Richard (March 1924) and Anna
Lillian Iversen (March 1926). Later she was called, or her name was
changed to, Ann. She was called Rooney (short for Annie Rooney) as
a child. At the age of nineteen she became mother of Priscilla.
Both Presley and her mother still have cousins in Norway. In a
letter to the City Hall of Egersund, Ann asked for information
about their relatives, and wrote that Priscilla was very interested
in knowing about them. Presley's parents visited family members in
Norway in 1992; Ann said their daughter was supposed to join them,
but was busy at the time.
Presley has her "own place" in Egersund –
Priscilla Presleys
plass. When she was told about this tribute being planned, by
a visiting
Norwegian relative
(summer 2007), and asked what she thought, she answered: "Oh, it's
marvellous!". The area is outside the house, Kirkegaten 23, where
her grandfather was born in 1896, and lived. Presley and her family
were invited by the lord mayor of Egersund to the opening ceremony
of Priscilla Presleys plass, which took place August 23, 2008, but
were unable to go due to Lisa Marie Presley being pregnant.
Presley's biological father was
US Navy
pilot James Wagner. His parents were Kathryn and Harold Wagner. On
10 August 1944, at the age of 23, he married Presley's mother; they
had been dating for more than three years. He was killed in a plane
crash while returning home on leave when Priscilla was six months
old. When Priscilla discovered this "..family secret..." whilst
rummaging through an old wooden box of family keepsakes, she was
encouraged by her mother to keep it from the other children as she
feared it would "...endanger our family closeness...".
In 1948
her mother met a United States Air Force officer named Paul
Beaulieu, from Quebec
. The
couple were married within a year. Beaulieu took over the raising
of Priscilla and was the only father Priscilla would ever know.
Over the
next few years, Priscilla grew up quickly, helping to care for the
growing family as her father's Air Force career moved them from
Connecticut
to New
Mexico
to Maine
. In
her own words, she described herself during this period as "...a
shy, pretty little girl unhappily accustomed to moving from base to
base every two or three years." Priscilla later recalled that she
felt uncomfortable moving so often because she never knew if she
could make friends for life, or even if she would fit in with the
new people she met on each move.
In 1956,
the Beaulieus moved to and settled in Austin
, Texas
, but soon
her father was transferred to Wiesbaden
, Germany
.<="">ref> Priscilla was "..crushed.." by
this news, and after finishing Junior High her fears of leaving her
friends behind and making new ones were once again at the forefront
of her mind.
Life in Germany
Initially the Beaulieus stayed at the Helene Hotel when they
arrived in Germany, but after three months the cost of living there
became too expensive and they looked for a place to rent. The
family settled in a large apartment in a "..vintage building
constructed long before
World War I".
However, soon after moving in the Beaulieus realised that it was a
brothel, but due to scarce housing they were
forced to remain there.
Feeling like an outsider once again due to her lack of
understanding the German language, Priscilla frequented the Eagles
Club; a place where American families would gather to eat dinner
and be entertained. It was "...within walking distance..." of their
apartment, and proved to be an important "discovery" for Priscilla.
She would go there "..everyday after school.." and listen to the
jukebox whilst writing letters back home to her friends in
Austin.
It was here, at the Eagles Club, that Priscilla met Currie Grant, a
young American Air Force recruit whose Commanding Officer knew
Priscilla's father. Grant offered to introduce Priscilla to Elvis
Presley, stating that he was "...good friends..." with the singer,
and that he and his wife would visit quite often. Being cautious
and skeptical of such a claim, Priscilla said she would have to ask
her parents, and over the next two weeks Grant met with them and
assured them that she would be well chaperoned.
Dating Elvis
Elvis and
Priscilla met in 1959 at a party in Bad Nauheim, Germany
during his stay in the army. She was 14
years old at the time. They quickly began a romantic relationship
and were frequently together until Elvis left Germany in 1960. In
her autobiography,
Elvis and
Me, Priscilla says that when they had sex, Elvis refused
to have intercourse with her until they were married. However,
biographer
Suzanne Finstad writes
that Priscilla and Elvis slept together on their second date, and
that she was not a virgin when she met him. Priscilla later filed a
lawsuit against Currie Grant for his claim in Finstad's book that
he had sex with her in exchange for introducing her to Elvis, and
won. However, neither Finstad nor her publisher was a party to the
lawsuit.
In her book, Priscilla writes about how she was nearly raped by one
of Elvis' friends during a ride back to her house. She says that
Kurt (not his real name) was asked by Elvis to give her a lift
home, but while she was "..dozing off.." he left the main highway
onto a dirt road and attempted to kiss her and then threw her down
onto the seat. After fighting him off and attempting to get help by
hitting the horn and flashing the cars lights, she says that he
must have feared being caught and decided to stop assaulting her.
For days she didn't tell anyone, and only when Elvis sensed that
she was upset during a visit a few days later, did she confide in
him. Elvis was furious, but out of fear that Priscilla's parents
wouldn't let them see each other again, they didn't tell anyone
else.
Priscilla and Elvis stayed in contact over the phone, though they
would not see each other again until the summer of 1962, when
Priscilla's parents agreed to let her visit for two weeks. It was
during this visit, whilst on a trip to Las Vegas, that Priscilla
first took amphetamines and sleeping pills to keep up with Elvis.
After another visit at Christmas, Priscilla's parents finally let
her move to America for good.
Part of the agreement was that she would
attend an all-girls' Catholic school (Immaculate Conception High
School
), and live with Elvis' father and his stepmother in
a separate house on the Graceland estate until she graduated high
school. Priscilla's parents allowed her to live at Graceland
only if Elvis promised to eventually marry her.
Marriage
Shortly before Christmas 1966, Elvis proposed to Priscilla. They
married on May 1, 1967 at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. Their
only child,
Lisa Marie, was born
on February 1, 1968.
For the first few years, they were very happily married. However,
when Elvis' career took off again, he was constantly touring and
playing in Las Vegas. Due to Elvis being away so often and his
ever-growing drug dependence, their marriage soured. Some of his
health problems troubled his doctors and so they went undiagnosed
until long after his death.
Priscilla wrote in her 1985 biography,
Elvis and Me, that around the time Elvis was
filming
Live a Little, Love
a Little (1968) she began taking private dance lessons. She
found herself deeply attracted to the instructor, known simply as
Mark in the book, and she confesses to having a short affair. She
implies regret, however, saying "I came out of it realizing I
needed much more out of my relationship with Elvis."
Elvis was a keen karate student, and persuaded Priscilla to take it
up. Priscilla thought it was a good idea as it would pass the
lonesome time if she had a hobby to concentrate on and she was also
keen to share in Elvis' interests. Following suggestions from
Elvis, Priscilla began taking lessons from Mike Stone, a karate
instructor she had met in 1972 backstage at one of Elvis' concerts.
She soon began an affair with him, and her "...restlessness..."
about it made Elvis suspicious. It was at this time, Priscilla
claims in her book, that Elvis forced himself upon her in his hotel
room and said: "This is how a real man makes love to a woman". It
was following this experience, according to her autobiography, that
she decided to leave Elvis. Once the news of her affair with Stone
was confirmed to Elvis, he raged obsessively: "There's too much
pain in me... Stone [must] die."
Elvis and Priscilla separated on February 23, 1972, more than
twelve years after they first met in Germany. Elvis filed for
legal separation in August 1972,
and then filed for divorce in January 1973. They were divorced on
October 9, 1973, after almost six and a half years of marriage,
agreeing to share custody of their daughter. They remained friends
until Elvis died on August 16, 1977.
Later relationships
Presley
purchased a large mansion in Beverly Hills
. She dated lawyer
Robert Kardashian in 1976.
In 1978, Presley began a relationship with male model
Michael Edwards. She invited Edwards
and his daughter Caroline to move into her mansion. They were
together for six years before breaking up in 1984. In 1988 he wrote
a book entitled
Priscilla, Elvis, and Me, in which he says
he was obsessed with Elvis and was sexually attracted to
Priscilla's daughter, Lisa Marie. Edwards claims that Priscilla had
a one-night-stand with actor
Richard
Gere in 1983 and that she also dated singer
Julio Iglesias.
In late 1984, Priscilla began dating screenwriter Marco Garibaldi.
They were together for nearly 22 years. The couple have a son,
Navarone (born March 1, 1987). In 2005, Navarone was arrested for
possession of
magic mushrooms.
Presley and Garibaldi broke up in March 2006. At the beginning of
their relationship, the couple signed a promissory agreement that
if they should break up, he will not write a book about her.
In 2007, Presley was romantically linked with
Nigel Lythgoe.
Personal life
Presley is a devoted member of the controversial
Church of Scientology, and speaks
publicly for the religion's anti-psychiatry
front group, the
CCHR.
Career
Business in Graceland
After the death of Elvis' father Vernon in 1979, Presley served as
co-executor of his estate. Marty Lacker, a close friend of Elvis,
says he was approached by Priscilla after the singer's death "to
help talk Vernon into naming her [in his will]".
Graceland itself cost $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had
dwindled Lisa Marie's inheritance to $5 million. Priscilla examined
other famous house-museums, and hired a CEO to turn Graceland into
a moneymaker. She became the chairwoman and president of
Elvis Presley Enterprises. It cost
$536,000 to open Graceland, a massive gamble at the time and one
which was certainly not guaranteed to pay off, but that money was
earned back in the first 38 days that it was open to the public.
After Graceland opened to the public in 1982, the enterprise's
fortunes soared and eventually the trust grew to be worth over $100
million.
In addition, in 2000, Presley was elected to the
board of directors of
MGM, with the prime vote coming from
Kirk Kerkorian, who dated Priscilla in the
1970s.
Acting
Priscilla had ambition to be an actress since she was a child, but
did not pursue an acting career until after Elvis' death. Though
she had once been considered as part of the original lineup for
Charlie’s Angels,
her acting career began modestly with a co-hosting job on the ABC
series
Those Amazing
Animals from 1980 to 1981. Her first appearance was a
guest spot on
The Fall Guy in
1983. Her first film role was in the 1983 TV movie,
Love is Forever, opposite
Michael Landon. She later graduated to a
recurring role as
Jenna Wade,
Bobby Ewing’s first love and mother of his son,
Lucas, on
Dallas from
1983 to 1988. She departed the series after disagreeing with the
direction of her character and the series, settling into a regular
rotation of guest star roles and appearances on Elvis-related
documentaries and specials.
In 1988, Priscilla starred opposite
Leslie Nielsen in the action comedy
The
Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, which
unexpectedly became a huge box-office hit. She returned to the role
in the hit 1991 sequel
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The
Smell of Fear, followed by
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final
Insult, in 1994.
Priscila's only other feature film has been the poorly received
The Adventures of
Ford Fairlane, in 1990. She hasn't acted in nearly a
decade. Her most recent appearances have been on the television
shows
Melrose
Place, in 1996,
Touched
by an Angel, in 1997, and in
Spin
City, in 1999.
Products
Priscila maintained a successful boutique from 1973 through 1976.
Celebrity clients included
Natalie
Wood,
Barbra Streisand, and
Cher. She eventually signed with the William
Morris Agency and landed a job as the national spokesperson for
Wella Balsam’s line of hair products. Priscilla also launched her
own fragrance, Moments, in 1988. Its popularity yielded a second
brand, Experiences, in 1994, and Indian Summer followed in
1996.
Dancing with the Stars
Presley was a contestant on
Season 6 of
Dancing with the
Stars. She was partnered with
Louis van Amstel.
She referred, on air, to
Dancing with the Stars as "the
hardest thing she's ever had to do." She scored 24 out of 30 on the
foxtrot on March 18, 2008, the
second-highest score of the evening. The following week she scored
21 for her first Latin dance, the mambo. The third week she danced
the tango and was highly praised by the judges, coming second on
the leaderboard with a score of 26. The fourth week she danced the
waltz and scored only 22. The judges lowered her score due to a
lift in the routine. In the results show the following night,
Priscilla found herself in the bottom two, but just managed to stay
in the competition. The fifth week, Priscilla danced the rumba and
scored 21, leaving her at the bottom of the leaderboard. Priscilla
found herself in the bottom two once again and this time she was
voted off with the least amount of votes.
Portrayals
Priscilla has been portrayed by
Season
Hubley in the film
Elvis (1979),
Susan Walters in
Elvis and Me (1988),
Alyson Court in
Elvis Meets Nixon (1997),
Antonia Bernath in the
CBS miniseries
Elvis (2005) and
Erin Chambers in
Tears of a King
(2007).
Bibliography
Notes
- Finstad (1997)
- "I slekt med Elvis". VG NETT. August 12,
2002. (The pictured woman is Priscilla Presley's third cousin)
- Presley approved of Priscilla Presleys
plass
- Kirkegaten (the Church Street) 23, Priscilla
Presleys plass
- Invitation to Egersund
- Opening ceremony of Priscilla Presleys plass
- Presley (1985), p. 22
- Presley (1985), p. 21
- Presley (1985), p. 19
- Presley (1985), p. 24
- Presley (1985), p. 25
- Presley (1985), p. 26
- Everything Elvis, ISBN 0-7535-0960-1
- Presley (1985), p. 42
- Presley (1985), p. 43
- Presley (1985), p. 44
- Priscilla, Biography Channel
- Presley (1985), p. 90
- Presley (1985), p. 262
- Presley (1985), p. 294
- Presley (1985), p. 295
- Presley (1985), p. 297
- Presley (1985), p. 298
- Presley (1985), p. 299
- Guralnick (1999), p. 489
- Edwards (1988)
- Clayton; Dick (2003), p. 400
References
- Clayton, Rose; Dick Heard (2003). Elvis: By Those Who Knew
Him Best. Virgin Publishing Limited.
- Edwards, Michael (1988). Priscilla, Elvis & Me: Life in
the Shadow of the King
- Finstad, Suzanne (1997). Child
Bride:The Untold Story Of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
- Guralnick, Peter (1999). Careless Love. The
Unmaking of Elvis Presley. Back Bay Books.
- Presley, Priscilla (1985). Elvis
and Me. ISBN 0-399-12984-7
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