Before Elvis Presley became a hip-swiveling sexy heartthrob, he was a shy young man who blushed when he got his first onscreen kiss. That kiss was courtesy of a rising young actress, Dolores Hart, who starred opposite Elvis in two of his earliest films: 1957’s Loving You, and 1958’s King Creole. Hart eventually gave up a successful acting career to become a Benedictine nun, run a priory, and today she is Mother Dolores, working and living in a Connecticut abbey.
The King and the Future Nun
Dolores Hart was born Dolores Hicks in 1938 to a pair of actors who divorced when she was a toddler. From an early age, Dolores thought that acting would be her career. She grew up into a gorgeous girl, and as a teenager, she got a starring role opposite Elvis in Loving You. Hart recalled that when they were supposed to kiss, she and Elvis blushed so bad that their ears turned purple, and makeup artists had to rush in to brush them with paint to hide it. She starred opposite Elvis in another movie the following year.
By the late 1950s, Dolores Hart was one of Hollywood’s most envied rising starlets – a beautiful and captivating actress heralded as the next Gene Kelly. In 1961, she was the top billing actress in MGM’s highest earning movie of the year, Where the Boys Are. By the early 1960s, she was an established leading lady. She starred across the likes of Montgomery Cliff, George Hamilton, Robert Wagner, and Stephen Boyd.
From Hollywood Hottie to Holy Vows
Despite the success, however, Hart’s soul was uneasy. Among other things, the separations from colleagues after months of intense work on film sets reminded her too much of the breakup of her own family, and filled her with heartache. As she would later tell a magazine: “Before I was twenty, I learned that being in movies did not bring me the ultimate joy I expected”. Hart often retreated to the countryside on her days off. A friend recommended she try the guest house of a Connecticut convent, the Abbey of Regina Laudis.
A Regina Laudis, she found a peace of mind and a sense of community and continuity that appealed to her. A few years later, she was engaged to be married, but changed her mind about her fiance. She decided to become a Bride of Christ instead. After finishing Come Fly With Me in 1963, Dolores turned her back on Hollywood, and entered a convent. In 1970, she took her final vows to become a nun. Today, Mother Dolores works and lives in the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
ABC News – Leaving Hollywood For a Higher Calling
Hart, Dolores – The Ear of Heart: An Actress’ Journey From Hollywood to Holy Vows (2013)
History Halls – After the Fame: Sonny Bono
