Love Me Tender: Mother Dolores Hart on Elvis...

Yahoo Movies ^ | February 21, 2012

[Steelfish]

Love Me Tender: Mother Dolores Hart on Elvis, her Big Bang Theory of Sexuality, and her Oscar-nominated short ‘God Is the Bigger Elvis’ By Thelma Adams Feb 21, 2012

Look up Dolores Hart on IMDB -- and prepare to be wowed. Hart, a Hollywood brat discovered while attending Marymount College, starred opposite Elvis in "Loving You" (1957). George Cukor directed her and Anna Magnani in "Wild is the Wind" (1957). The future prioress starred in the cult favorite "Where the Boys Are" (1960) -- and even played a nun in Michael Curtiz's "Francis of Assisi" (1961). And then, in 1963, at age 24 on the verge of marriage and following the premiere of her final feature, "Come Fly With Me," this leading lady who had been compared to Grace Kelly and kissed "the King" on screen, entered the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut.

Yes, the Hollywood star gave up the spotlight for God. According to the Oscar-nominated documentary short, "God is the Bigger Elvis," Hart discovered an inner peace and contentment in the cloister that had been absent on stage and screen, and in her engagement to California businessman Don Robinson. Hart has confessed it's tough explaining the change in vocation, but has described it as: "Falling in love. One falls in love with the Lord." Now, the feisty 73-year-old Prioress, Mother Dolores Hart, will not only attend the Oscars this weekend, she voted for them. She's the only nun currently a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Thelma Adams: Why did you agree to make "God Is the Bigger Elvis" for HBO?

Mother Dolores Hart: About two years ago I was taken to Washington, D.C., by a friend of mine for another reason and there I met.............

[jocon307]

Thanks for posting this, amazing that such a good interview is on Yahoo Movies!

(KLO from National Review must be very envious!)

And what a funny story about the director telling her to go watch the foreign movie down the street for an acting lesson.

[arrogantsob]

Elvis was just a good ole, polite Southern gentleman who also loved gospel music.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Dolores Hart, in “Where the Boys Are”, showed what a truely beautiful woman looks like.

Yvette Mimieux, her co-star, was also a great beauty.

Film also had other good lookers/talented singers/actresses Connie Francis and Paula Prentiss.

[OneVike]

I remember sitting on a bench with a girl I had a huge crush on when I was 9 years old. I wanted her to know how I liked her so much that I sang “Love Me tender” to her, and she became my girl friend.

Now at 9 years old, my idea of a girl friend was much different than it was 5 years later, but I will always have a special place in my heart for Thereasa Youngmark.

She was my Winnie Cooper, and the first girl I ever kissed. I still have a picture my Mom took of us at a Moose Lodge picnic, while we were getting ready to run a 3 legged gunny sack race. We came in second place behind my two older brothers.