Elvis Presley Filmography
Academy Award-winning Hollywood movie producer Hal B. Wallis, who received 16 Academy Award nominations for his movies, stated about the Elvis Presley movies: “An Elvis Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood.” In 1956, following his rise to stardom in the rock and roll musical arena, singer Elvis Presley launched a parallel career as a film actor, beginning with the musical western film, Love Me Tender (although he had previously appeared in an unreleased 1955 production, The Pied Piper of Cleveland). The majority of Elvis Presley’s films were of the musical-comedy genre (examples include Loving You and Blue Hawaii) with unsophisticated scripting and similar, formulaic plotlines, although he also appeared in dramatic films with musical interludes (examples include Jailhouse Rock and King Creole). He also made two non-musical films, both westerns: Flaming Star and Charro, although he still performed at least one song in each. By the mid-1960s, Presley’s career was primarily focused on film production, with virtually his only releases of new material during this time being soundtrack recordings.
The quality of Elvis Presley’s films varied widely, from the major dramatic roles in Jailhouse Rock (1957) and King Creole (1958), directed by Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, based on the Harold Robbins 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher, and starring Academy Award-winning actor Walter Matthau and Carolyn Jones, to the light comedies Kissin’ Cousins (1964) and Tickle Me (1965). A quote attributed to Elvis Presley in the documentary This is Elvis alleged some of the films even made him physically ill. Following the 1969 production, Change of Habit, Presley shifted his career back to recording and touring and his remaining film appearances were in two concert films/documentaries in the early 1970s, although Presley reportedly continued to consider dramatic movie roles. He was reportedly offered the male lead role in A Star is Born in 1975 by Barbra Streisand. He was also reported to have been offerred the starring role in West Side Story (1960) and Jon Voight’s role in Midnight Cowboy (1969) but turned them down.
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Top Grossing Movies at the Box Office
Based on the Box Office Report database, the top grossing Elvis Presley movies based on the yearly Top 20 box office rankings were:
1. Viva Las Vegas (May, 1964, MGM), no. 11 on the list of the top grossing movies of the year in the U.S., $5.152 million
2. Jailhouse Rock (October, 1957, MGM), no. 12, $3.9 million
3. Blue Hawaii (November, 1961, Paramount), no. 13, $4.7 million
4. G.I. Blues (August, 1960, Paramount), no. 15, $4.3 million
5. Loving You (July, 1957, Paramount), tied for no. 15, $3.7 million
6. Girls! Girls! Girls! (November, 1962, Paramount), no. 19, $3.6 million
7. Love Me Tender (November, 1956, Twentieth Century Fox), no. 20, $4.2 million
8. Girl Happy (1965, MGM), no. 25, $3.1 million
9. Kissin’ Cousins (1964, MGM), no. 26, $2.8 million
10. Roustabout (1964, Paramount), no. 28, $3 million
Please note that these figures have not been adjusted for inflation.
Awards and Nominations
Elvis on Tour (1972) won the 1973 Golden Globe award for the Best Documentary film. Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese was the montage supervisor for the film. Andrew W. Solt was a researcher on the movie.
Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture-Musical.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Trivia |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Love Me Tender | Clint Reno | First movie role. The only film in which Presley’s character dies on-screen; also the only movie in which he did not get top billing. He was billed third, after Richard Egan and Debra Paget. |
| 1957 | Loving You | Jimmy Tompkins (Deke Rivers) | The first Elvis’ film in color. Presley’s parents were cast as audience members. After his mother’s death in 1958, Elvis never watched this movie again. Comedian Jay Leno said that he decided to become an entertainer after seeing this movie at the theater. |
| Jailhouse Rock | Vince Everett | Co-star Judy Tyler was killed in a car wreck on July 4, 1957, three days after filming ended. Presley refused to watch the movie because of this[1] Composer Mike Stoller appears in the movie as the band pianist. | |
| 1958 | King Creole | Danny Fisher | Presley’s favorite movie of the ones he made.[2] This was also the last Elvis movie filmed in black and white. The director was Michael Curtiz, who won the Academy Award in 1943 for Best Director for Casablanca. The movie was loosely based on the 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins. |
| 1960 | G.I. Blues | Tulsa McLean | The 32nd Armored was Presley’s regiment when he was in the army and in this movie. The soundtrack album was no. 1 on Billboard and spent over two years (111 weeks) on the Billboard charts! |
| Flaming Star | Pacer Burton | Andy Warhol’s famous diptych of Presley as a cowboy came from a shot in this movie. | |
| 1961 | Wild in the Country | Glenn Tyler | Millie Perkins broke her arm when she had to slap Presley’s character during filming. The screenplay was by Clifford Odets. |
| Blue Hawaii | Chad Gates | The soundtrack album for this movie was Presley’s most successful chart album. It spent twenty consecutive weeks on the #1 spot of the Billboard Top LP’s chart in 1961-1962. Golden Globe and Tony Award winning Murder, She Wrote actress Angela Lansbury co-starred as Elvis’ mother but in reality she was only 10 years older than him. | |
| 1962 | Follow That Dream | Toby Kwimper | Shot in Citrus County, Florida and Levy County, Florida. The main intersection of Highway 19 in Inglis, Florida is named Follow That Dream Parkway. Tom Petty met Elvis Presley during the shooting of the film. Bruce Springsteen has performed the title song in concert. |
| Kid Galahad | Walter Gulick/Dustin Holmes/Kid Galahad | The remake of a 1937 film, Presley was trained for the fight scenes by the professional boxing coach Mushy Callahan. Gig Young and Charles Bronson co-starred. | |
| Girls! Girls! Girls! | Ross Carpenter | The only one of his feature films to be nominated for a Golden Globe. | |
| 1963 | It Happened at the World’s Fair | Mike Edwards | Uncredited movie debut of Kurt Russell; he runs on screen and kicks Elvis in the shin. Gary Lockwood, who later starred in 2001: A Space Odyssey, co-starred. |
| Fun in Acapulco | Mike Windgren | Teri Garr makes her uncredited movie debut as an extra in this film. She also appeared as an uncredited extra in several more Presley movies. The Beatles saw the movie at a Miami drive-in during their first U.S. tour in 1964. James Bond girl Ursula Andress co-starred. | |
| 1964 | Kissin’ Cousins | Josh Morgan / Jodie Tatum | Elvis’ first dual role. Presley loathed the “strawberry blond” wig he had to wear as the hillbilly cousin in this film[3], in part because it made him look as he had before deciding to dye his hair black in 1957. Jack Albertson co-starred. |
| Viva Las Vegas | Lucky Jackson | Elvis had an off-screen romance with his film co-star, Ann-Margret. This was Presley’s most successful film at the box office, returning more than $5 million to MGM on an investment of less than $1 million. | |
| Roustabout | Charlie Rogers | Raquel Welch and Barbara Stanwyck were co-stars. Presley did his own stunts in this film. He received a head wound after insisting on doing a fight scene himself[4]. | |
| 1965 | Girl Happy | Rusty Wells | Shelley Fabares and Jackie Coogan were co-stars. |
| Tickle Me | Lonnie Beale / Panhandle Kid | This is the only movie for which Presley did not record a new soundtrack. All the songs had been recorded between 1960 and 1963 and had already been released. The screenplay was by Elwood Ullman and Edward Bernds, who had written The Three Stooges short movie features. | |
| Harum Scarum | Johnny Tyronne | The only film Elvis was paid a million dollars to act in, although part of this was paid in installments. The alternate title was Harem Holiday. Mary Ann Mobley and Michael Ansara co-starred. | |
| 1966 | Frankie and Johnny | Johnny | Donna Douglas of The Beverly Hillbillies and Harry Morgan of M*A*S*H were the co-stars. |
| Paradise, Hawaiian Style | Rick Richards | At age ten, this was Donna Butterworth’s last picture. James Shigeta co-starred. | |
| Spinout | Mike McCoy | President Lyndon B. Johnson visited the set and met Presley. Shelley Fabares co-starred. | |
| 1967 | Easy Come, Easy Go | Lt. (j.g.) Ted Jackson | The ship featured in the first part of the movie is the USS Gallant, an ocean-going minesweeper. The movie also featured Pat Priest, Elsa Lanchester, and Pat Harrington, Jr., who later played Schneider in the 1970s TV series One Day at a Time. |
| Double Trouble | Guy Lambert | Only movie Annette Day ever made. Norman Rossington, who was in The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night (1964), co-starred. | |
| Clambake | Scott Heyward / ‘Tom Wilson’ | The red sports car in this film is a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Racer. Bill Bixby and Shelley Fabares co-starred. | |
| 1968 | Stay Away, Joe | Joe Lightcloud | Burgess Meredith was a co-star in the movie. |
| Speedway | Steve Grayson | The film co-starred Nancy Sinatra and Bill Bixby. | |
| Live a Little, Love a Little | Greg Nolan | Albert, the Great Dane in the movie, was played by Presley’s own dog, Brutus. Presley’s father is a model for one of the photo-shoots in the film. The movie featured the song “A Little Less Conversation”. | |
| 1969 | Charro! | Jess Wade | Only film in which he was not filmed singing. This is the only movie in which Presley wears a beard. Gunsmoke and Rawhide producer Charles Marquis Warren was the director and screenwriter. |
| The Trouble with Girls | Walter Hale | Only Presley release that was part of a double bill, with The Green Slime (1968). Vincent Price and Dabney Coleman was a co-star. | |
| Change of Habit | Dr. John Carpenter | Only film where Presley is in a church. His last feature film role. Mary Tyler Moore and Edward Asner co-starred. | |
| 1970 | Elvis: That’s the Way It Is | As himself | Concert film; shot during Presley’s third season in Las Vegas. |
| 1972 | Elvis On Tour | As himself | Concert film; 1973 Golden Globe winner for Best Documentary film (it tied with Walls of Fire (1971)). |
| 2002 | New Gladiators | A Karate documentary filmed in 1973-74; the idea for the film and the financing came from Elvis Presley. |
References
- ^ IMdb
- ^ Presley has said in interviews that “King Creole” was his favorite film role. Elvis’ website Au version
- ^ Guralnick, Careless Love, 157
- ^ Guralnick, Careless Love, 169
Elvis Presley Christmas Duets
