Happy Birthday Elvis! Yes the King of Rock and Roll and arguably one of the biggest music icons of all time would have been seventy five years old today.
And while he may be a music legend he was one of the first to become what is know today as a double threat, moving into movies.
Despite having no acting training Elvis had had an interest in movies from an early age and admired the likes of Marlon Brando and James Dean.
In Aril 1956, just weeks after releasing his debut album he signed a seven year contract with Paramount Pictures, but the contract did allow him to work with other studios.
He mad his big screen debut with Love Me Tender, a musical western, that was a huge box office success.
Over the next few years the movies came thick and fast as Loving You, Jailhouse Rock and King Creole all hit the big screen.
Loving You in 1957 was the first time an Elvis movie has been seen in colour while Blue Hawaii in 1961 gave him his most successful chart album.
Mixing music and movies proved to be a huge success for the star as early movies in particular did well at the box office.
By the mid sixties Presley was very much focusing on an acting career and the only music releases that he made were linked with his latest movie, not that that hurt in the case of Blue Hawaii.
Released hand in hand with the film the spending twenty consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard chart in America.
He tried to move away from the musical genre in the sixties with a couple of more serious roles in Flaming Star and Wild In the Country but when these didn’t fair too well at the box office he reverted to the tried and tested method of the musical.
Over the years questions have been raised over Elvis’ acting ability but when you look back over his early roles, Jailhouse Rock and King Creole in particular, it’s undeniable that Elvis had an acting flair.
His performance of Jailhouse Rock in the movie of the same name remains one of his most famous and iconic moments on the big screen.
We take a look at the top three Elvis Presley movies.
- Viva Las Vegas
Released in 1964 Viva Las Vegas was Elvis’ biggest grossing movie starring alongside Ann-Margret, Cesare Danova, and William Demarest.
Presley starred as Lucky Jackson, an aspiring auto racer with a dream of winning the Grand Prix.
Sexy, spunky Ann-Margret is Rusty Martin, the swimming instructor who falls for him against her will, hating the idea of her man risking his life in a race car.
Lucky struggles to raise the money to buy a new engine while Rusty tries to convince him to give up racing for her.
- Jailhouse Rock
Everyone knows the song ‘warden threw a party in the county jail’ and all that but the musical number in this movie are some of Elvis’ most famous moments on the big screen.
Vince Everett is serving a one-year jail sentence for manslaughter. While in the big house, his cellmate, a former country singer, introduces him to the record business.
Everett takes to it so well that he decides to become a singer when he gets out. However, he is quickly disillusioned by the record business.
But with the help of a new friend, he decides to form his own label, and soon becomes an overnight sensation. But when he becomes a superstar, will his desire for fame and money cause him to forget the people who got him there?
- Blue Hawaii
Blue Hawaii, which was released in 1961, was another of Elvis’ most financially successful movies at the box office.
Chad Gates has just gotten out of the Army, and is happy to be back in Hawaii with his surf-board, his beach buddies, and his girlfriend.
His father wants him to go to work at the Great Southern Hawaiian Fruit Company, but Chad is reluctant. So Chad goes to work as a tour guide at his girlfriend's agency.
Long live the King!
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Elvis Presley