Priscilla Presley

WorldBrand briefing

AI supplement

Original synthesis to sit alongside the encyclopedia article below. Not part of Wikipedia; verify facts on Wikipedia when precision matters.

Priscilla Presley (born Priscilla Ann Wagner in 1945) is an American actress, businesswoman and published author, best known for her long relationship with iconic rock star Elvis Presley, her pioneering work managing the Elvis Presley Enterprises, and her decades-long career in film and television.

Key moments

1945-05-24Born in Brooklyn, New York City, the U.S.
1959Meets 24-year-old Elvis Presley at age 14, when her military family is stationed in West Germany
1967-05-01Marries Elvis Presley in a private Las Vegas ceremony
1968-02-01Daughter Lisa Marie Presley, her only child with Elvis, is born
1973Finalizes amicable divorce from Elvis Presley, retaining the Presley surname
1977Becomes legal executor of the Graceland estate following Elvis' sudden death
1982Opens Graceland to public tours as co-founder of Elvis Presley Enterprises, transforming the private property into one of the top cultural tourist sites in the U.S.
1983Lands a recurring supporting role in the hit long-running prime time soap opera *Dallas*
1988Makes her major film debut as Jane Spencer in the first entry of the commercially successful *Naked Gun* comedy franchise, appearing in all three films of the series
2023Serves as executive producer for Sofia Coppola's award-nominated biopic *Priscilla*, adapted from her memoir *Elvis and Me*

Breaking free from Elvis' public shadow

For decades, popular narratives reduced Priscilla to little more than the spouse of one of the world's most famous rock stars, but she deliberately built independent career paths after her divorce. Instead of leaning on her association with Elvis for easy opportunities, she developed her own distinct screen persona as a comedy performer, and demonstrated sharp business acumen to turn a largely under-monetized private estate into a globally recognized cultural institution.

Shaping nuanced public narratives of her life experience

Her 1985 memoir Elvis and Me offered a personal, unvarnished first-person account of her years with Elvis, pushing back against decades of sensationalized tabloid coverage that distorted their relationship dynamics. The 2023 biopic centered her perspective rather than framing her as a secondary character in Elvis' life story, introducing her personal journey to a whole new generation of younger audiences who had limited prior context for her cultural impact.

Multi-generational stewardship of the Presley heritage

Priscilla has carefully balanced two competing priorities across her decades leading the Presley estate: preserving the historical authenticity of Graceland as a public heritage site, while evolving the Elvis brand for new eras of pop culture. She has also been a core stabilizing figure for the Presley family through multiple high-profile losses, supporting the artistic careers of her descendants including actress and director Riley Keough, and maintaining the estate's cultural relevance after Lisa Marie Presley's passing in 2023.

Overview

Priscilla Presley

birth name	Priscilla Ann Wagner
birth date	May 24, 1945
birth place	New York City, U.S.
other names	Priscilla Wagner Priscilla Beaulieu
occupation	Actress · businesswoman
spouse	Elvis Presley (m. 1967-1973)
partner	Marco Garibaldi (1984–2006)

relatives	Riley Keough (granddaughter)

years active	1973–present

Priscilla Ann Presley (née Wagner, formerly Beaulieu; born May 24, 1945) is an American businesswoman and actress. She was married to singer Elvis Presley from 1967 to 1973. Presley co-founded and served as chair of Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), the company responsible for developing Graceland as a public attraction. As an actress, she portrayed Jane Spencer in the Naked Gun film series (1988–1994) and Jenna Wade on the television series Dallas (1983–1988).

Early life

Priscilla Ann Wagner was born on May 24, 1945, at Brooklyn Naval Hospital in New York City.[1][2] Her maternal grandfather, Albert Henry Iversen, was originally from Egersund, Norway.[3] Iversen later immigrated to the United States, where he married Lorraine Davis, who was of Scots-Irish and English descent. Their only daughter, Anna Lillian Iversen, later known as Ann, was Priscilla's mother.[4] Priscilla's biological father, James Frederick Wagner, was a U.S. Navy pilot from Cherrytree Township, Pennsylvania.[5] He married Ann on August 10, 1944. Wagner died in a plane crash on November 3, 1945, when Priscilla was six months old.[6] His brother, Harold Wagner Jr., later served as principal of an American school in Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany.[5][7] In 1948, Ann married U.S. Air Force officer Paul Beaulieu, a native of Québec, Canada. The couple raised Priscilla, along with half-siblings Donald, Michelle, Jeffrey and twins Thomas and Timothy.[8] Priscilla's surname was legally changed to Beaulieu on April 17, 1950. Due to her stepfather's military career, the family relocated frequently. Priscilla later recalled in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, "We moved around a lot, and I didn't stay in one school long enough to make close friends. I was quite shy when I was young, and I dreaded lunchtime at school. I often ate alone."[9][10] In 1956, the family settled in Del Valle, Texas, before Beaulieu was reassigned to Wiesbaden, West Germany.

Life in West Germany

Upon arriving in West Germany, the Beaulieu family initially stayed at the Helene Hotel. After three months, the cost proved unsustainable, prompting them to search for a rental property. They eventually moved into a spacious apartment in a "vintage building constructed long before World War I." Shortly after settling in, they discovered that the building also operated as a brothel, but due to limited housing availability, they had little choice but to remain.

Life with Elvis

West Germany

On September 13, 1959, Priscilla met the 24-year-old Presley in Wiesbaden, West Germany, in 1959 at age 14 while he was serving in the U.S. Army, initiating a relationship that led to their marriage in Las Vegas on May 1, 1967. Currie Grant, a U.S. Air Force officer, introduced her, and Priscilla met Presley several times after their initial meeting. During one of these early visits, he invited her upstairs to speak privately and shared memories of his mother, Gladys Presley, who had died in August 1958. Before she left, he kissed her goodbye—reportedly her first real kiss. After their fourth date, her father stated that if the relationship was to continue, he wanted to meet Presley in person. Presley agreed and arrived in his Army uniform, accompanied by his father. During the meeting, Priscilla's parents outlined expectations for future visits, including transportation and curfews. Presley responded respectfully and offered reassurances, allowing the relationship to continue under agreed conditions.[11] Thereafter, Priscilla and Presley were frequently together until he departed from West Germany on March 2, 1960.[12]

After Elvis left Germany, Priscilla isolated herself for two days, unable to eat or sleep. At school, she was swarmed by reporters asking if he'd called and stating that

Personal life post-1973

Since her divorce from Elvis Presley in 1973, Priscilla Presley has had several long-term relationships, but has not remarried. Immediately afterwards, she lived with karate instructor Mike Stone, but the relationship dissolved by 1975.[33]

Beginning in 1978, Presley had a six-year intermittent live-in relationship with model Michael Edwards, until he began developing feelings for the teenage Lisa Marie.[34]

Presley's longest relationship has been with Brazilian screenwriter-turned-computer-programmer Marco Antonio Garcia (a.k.a. Marco Garibaldi), with whom she lived for 22 years. The two were introduced by a mutual friend in 1984 after he wrote a script that she read, hoping to produce. Their son, Navarone Garibaldi, was born on March 1, 1987.[35] (Presley was starring in the primetime soap opera Dallas at the time and her pregnancy was written into the storyline.) In 2006, they ended their relationship. At the beginning of their romance, Presley ensured Garibaldi sign a promissory agreement that if they should break up, he would not write a book about her.[36]

Business

In 1973, following her separation from her husband, Presley set up a clothing boutique in Los Angeles, called Bis & Beau with her friend and stylist Olivia Bis.[18] In a 1973 interview to promote the opening of the store, Priscilla said, "After the separation, I had to make up my mind about what I wanted to do, and since I had worked with Olivia for such a long time on my own clothes, I decided to try it professionally. We both do the designing for the shop, and have people who sew for us."[18] Elvis, supportive of Priscilla's business, contacted several friends in public relations to help promote the launch. The shop was a successful business venture, with celebrity clients including Diana Ross, Carol Burnett, Jill Ireland, Mary Tyler Moore, Victoria Principal, Michelle Phillips, Dyan Cannon, Julie Christie, Suzanne Pleshette, Cher, Liza Minnelli, Lana Turner, Barbra Streisand, and Natalie Wood shopping there regularly. The shop closed in 1976.[39]

Acting career

Presley had shown an interest in dancing and modelling, and had modeled for a local store once. Hal B. Wallis, a Hollywood producer who had financed many of Elvis's earlier films, showed interest in signing Priscilla to a contract. However, during her marriage, she never pursued these activities as a career, instead calling acting or filmmaking a hobby. Priscilla was sensitive about Elvis's opinion (not unusual in their era) that a wife should serve as a homemaker and support her husband’s career. Priscilla neither pursued fashion modeling nor did she sign any exclusive contracts, instead choosing to comply with her husband's wishes.

Presley had originally been offered a role as one of the leads on Charlie's Angels. She turned down the role because she disliked the show. Presley made her television debut as co-host of Those Amazing Animals in 1980.[39] In 1983, she had her first professional acting role on a season 2 episode of The Fall Guy titled "Manhunter". She then went on to play in a television film titled Love is Forever, starring alongside Michael Landon. Although she was treated well by most of the cast and crew, and her acting was praised by several of her co-stars, she found Landon difficult to work with on set. After the television film aired, Presley took on the role of Jenna Wade in the primetime soap opera Dallas. As the third actor to portray Jenna (after Morgan Fairchild and Francine Tacker), she played the role for the longest of the three after the character was expanded and Presley became a series regular. In 1988, after five years, Presley left the show. During her tenure on the series, she was also offered the role of Bond girl

Charity work and activism

Since 2003, Presley has been the Ambassador of the Dream Foundation, a Santa Barbara-based wish-granting organization for terminally ill adults and their families.[55][56]

Priscilla Presley joined the Church of Scientology along with her daughter after Elvis's death.[57][58] In 2006, she helped inaugurate Narconon's Stonehawk Rehabilitation Center in Michigan.[59][60] When Lisa Marie left Scientology in 2016, it was reported that Priscilla had also distanced herself from the church at the same time,

Honors

Presley was conferred the degree of Doctor of Humanities by Rhodes College in 1998.[63] She was named godmother of the largest river steamboat ever built, American Queen, christened April 27, 2012 at its home port in Memphis.[64] The AutoZone Liberty Bowl chose her as its 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award winner.[65] On July 22, 2022, Theatre Memphis honored her contributions to Memphis art and tourism with a gala, "Honoring Priscilla Presley: The Artist, The Woman", featuring more than a dozen speakers and a live musical tribute.[66] She has a square named after her in Egersund, Norway – "Priscilla Presleys plass". The area is in the street outside the house where her grandfather was born in 1899, and lived.[67] In 2025, Presley was honored with Tennessee's highest civilian award for her contributions to the state's cultural heritage and her role in preserving Graceland as a historic landmark.

Filmography

Film

Television

Portrayals

Since 1979, Presley has been portrayed in several screen and TV films focusing on various aspects of her life with Elvis Presley, her husband from 1967 to 1973. Actresses who played Priscilla Presley include Season Hubley in Elvis, the 1979 TV movie; Susan Walters in Elvis and Me, a 1988 TV miniseries; Kehli O'Byrnein in Elvis and the Colonel, a 1993 TV movie; Alyson Court in Elvis Meets Nixon, 1997; Antonia Barnath in Elvis, a 2005 TV miniseries; Erin Chambers in Tears of a King, 2007; Ashley Greene in Shangri-La Suite, 2016; Olivia DeJonge in Elvis, 2022; and Cailee Spaeny in Priscilla, 2023.

Bibliography

External links

Priscilla Presley with Barbara Walters 1985

References

Jennifer Kline. Priscilla Presley, 72, makes rare appearance in New York for new Elvis documentary AOL, retrieved March 10, 2019^
Priscilla Presley: Timeline Tumblr, retrieved December 3, 2020^
"Egen plass i bestefars fødeby" (March 14, 2008)

Move to Graceland

In February 1962, after months without contact, Elvis called Priscilla and suggested she visit him in Los Angeles. She was unsure her father would agree, but Elvis made repeated calls to reassure her parents. He accepted every condition: waiting until summer break, providing a first-class round-trip ticket, sending a detailed itinerary, ensuring constant chaperoning, and requiring daily letters home. Priscilla marked off each day until the visit. When she arrived, she was met by Joe Esposito and driven to Elvis's home.[11] Soon after, Elvis invited her to join him on a trip to Las Vegas—breaking the agreed itinerary. To avoid detection, Priscilla prewrote letters and arranged for them to be mailed from Los Angeles while she was away.[11]

During the Las Vegas visit, Priscilla began experimenting with amphetamines and sleeping pills to keep pace with Elvis's nocturnal lifestyle. After a second visit at Christmas, her parents agreed to let her relocate to Memphis permanently in mid-March 1963, two months before her eighteenth birthday.[14] As part of the arrangement, Elvis was expected to marry her. Priscilla enrolled at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral School, an all-girls Catholic institution, and initially lived with Elvis's father and stepmother.[15] She spent increasing time at Graceland with Elvis's grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley, gradually moving her belongings in until she was living there full-time.[16]

Priscilla was eager to accompany Elvis to Hollywood, but he repeatedly told her he was too busy and asked her to remain in Memphis. During that period, she read reports of an affair between Elvis and his Viva Las Vegas co-star Ann-Margret. She confronted him, and he dismissed the stories as publicity-driven rumours, urging her not to trust the press. Over the following years, Elvis had multiple intimate relationships with co-stars, though he denied each of them to Priscilla.[17] She was eventually permitted to visit him in Hollywood, but her stays were brief.

Marriage and pregnancy

Shortly before Christmas 1966, Elvis proposed to Priscilla, reportedly prompted by Colonel Tom Parker's reminder of RCA's "morals clause" in his record contract. In a 1973 interview with Ladies' Home Journal, Priscilla recalled that they were happy to live together, but "at that time, it wasn't nice for people to [just] live together".[18] Accounts of Elvis's attitude toward marriage vary: his cook Alberta and friend Marty Lacker described him as reluctant and upset about not having a choice, while others, including Esposito, claimed he was excited to marry Priscilla.[19]

In her memoir Elvis and Me, Priscilla described Elvis as passionate but insistent that they wait until marriage before becoming sexually intimate, stating, "I'm not saying we can't do other things. It's just the actual encounter. I want to save it."[20] Priscilla said in her autobiography that she was a virgin when she married, and she and Elvis did not have sex until their wedding night. Biographer Suzanne Finstad disputed this, suggesting Priscilla had been sexually active earlier, including with Elvis in Germany.[21]

The couple married on May 1, 1967, at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. The ceremony, arranged by Parker for publicity, lasted eight minutes and was followed by a press conference and a $10,000 breakfast reception attended by representatives from MGM, RCA, and the William Morris Agency.[19]

After the reception, Elvis and Priscilla honeymooned briefly in Palm Springs before returning to Memphis on May 4.[19] They spent three weeks at their private ranch near the Mississippi border, largely alone, though some members of Elvis's inner circle joined them. To mend relationships, the couple hosted a second reception at Graceland on May 29 for those not invited to the wedding.

Priscilla soon discovered she was pregnant. Concerned that it might disrupt their newfound intimacy,[22] she considered an abortion, but she and Elvis ultimately decided against it. Their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, was born on February 1, 1968 — exactly nine months after their wedding.[22]

Separation and divorce

While Elvis was filming Live a Little, Love a Little (1968), Priscilla began private dance lessons and developed a brief romantic relationship with her instructor, referred to as "Mark" in her memoir Elvis and Me. She later expressed regret. Despite affairs on both sides, the early years of their marriage were reportedly happy. However, following Elvis's 1968 television special, his career resurged, and he spent increasing time touring and performing in Las Vegas, while Priscilla remained at home with their daughter.[23] Encouraged by Elvis, Priscilla took up karate to share his interests and occupy her time. In 1968, she saw Mike Stone for the first time during her second honeymoon in Hawaii. In 1972, she met instructor Mike Stone backstage at one of Elvis's concerts and began an affair. Nevertheless the year 1972 is not confirmed by Mike Stone who wrote that he met Priscilla for the second time at a karate event at Bolsa Chica High School on May 15, 1971.[24] She later wrote, "I still loved Elvis, greatly, but over the next few months, I knew I would have to make a crucial decision regarding my destiny." According to her memoir, Elvis later summoned her to his hotel suite and "forcefully made love to me...[saying] 'This is how a real man makes love to his woman'". In a later interview, Priscilla said she regretted her choice of words and that they were an overstatement of what happened.[25] Nevertheless, according to Jerry Schilling, Priscilla and Elvis talked together in his dressing room, not in his suite.[26]

Priscilla reflected that Elvis's attempt at reconciliation came too late and lacked sensitivity. She cited his earlier comment that he had "never been able to make love to a woman who had a child" and described the emotional toll of their sexual dysfunction: "I am beginning to doubt my own sexuality, as a woman. My physical and emotional needs were unfulfilled." She concluded, "This was not the gentle, understanding man I grew to love." Years later, on Loose Women, Priscilla confirmed that she and Elvis did sleep together after Lisa Marie was born.[27]

The couple separated on February 23, 1972,[28] and filed for legal separation on July 26. Priscilla sued Elvis for fraud to reopen the divorce by default in May 1973.[29][30][31] The divorce was finalized on October 9, 1973.

Priscilla and Elvis agreed to share custody of Lisa Marie. She received a $725,000 cash settlement, spousal and child support, 5% of Elvis's new publishing companies, and half the proceeds from the sale of their Beverly Hills home. Initially, the settlement had been smaller, but after consulting new lawyers, Priscilla revised her requests, asserting that Elvis could afford more.[32] The couple remained close, leaving the courthouse hand-in-hand on the day their divorce was finalized.[32]