The first costar to kiss
Elvis Presley on the
screen but left for a life
of solitude The first
actress to kiss Elvis
Presley on the screen and
over six year, starred in
films with Anthony Quinn,
Robert Wagner, Jeff
Chandler, and Montgomery
Clift. She was the
top-billing actress in
MGM's highest grossing
1962 movie Where the Boys
Are. Today Dolores Hart is
Mother Dolores who lives
at the Abbey of Regina
Laudis in rural
Connecticut, where she has
been a cloistered nun.
Dolores grew into a
striking beauty and in
1957, at the age of 18,
she signed a contract with
famed movie producer Hal
Wallis, and her first
movie Loving You she
starred opposite Elvis
Presley. Decades later,
Robinson who still lives
LA and has never married.
He continues to visit the
woman he now knows as
Mother Dolores. He says
their love has sustained
itself - albeit in ways
very different from what
he'd imagined as a younger
man. "We have grown
together. Like we would
have in our marriage," he
says, "She's my life."
Mother Dolores, formerly
Dolores Hart, is still a
member of the Motion
Picture Academy of Arts
and Sciences. But she has
not been able to vote for
the Oscar winners since
joining the Abbey of
Regina Laudis because she
cannot leave the abbey to
see the films. Recently,
however, she has asked the
Academy to reinstate her
as a voting member. She
plans to watch the films
on home video.
Dolores Hart at age 24
startled the film world in
1962 by leaving a thriving
screen career - including
two roles opposite Elvis
Presley - to become a nun,
has returned to Hollywood
for her first visit after
43 years. Now the Rev.
Mother Dolores Hart and
prioress of the cloistered
community at Abbey of
Regina Laudis in
Connecticut, she has been
renewing friendships from
her studio years. Why? To
spread awareness about a
largely mysterious
neurological disorder that
afflicts countless
Americans, including
herself, called peripheral
idiopathic neuropathy.
Last month, Hart testified
at a congressional hearing
in Washington, citing the
need for research into a
cause and cure for the
painful and crippling
disease.
Over a recent lunch at the
Beverly Wilshire Hotel,
Mother Dolores spoke of
her ordeal with the
disease. She also told of
her long ambition to be an
actress and what ended
that phase of her life.
She seems in radiant
health at 67, her cheeks
smooth and rosy, her blue
eyes clear. She wore
traditional nun's attire,
with a couple of
additions: a green
hand-knit sweater under
the robe and a jaunty
black beret.
In 1999, Hart
underwent a root canal.
Two days later, Hart
awakened with searing
pain. "I couldn't eat,''
she recalled. "When I put
my feet on the floor, I
couldn't stand. My feet
felt like they were on
fire. I couldn't talk. I
thought, 'This is
ridiculous.' I couldn't
understand what in the
world was going on." For
six months, she journeyed
from doctor to doctor, yet
none could figure out what
was causing her pain.
Finally, a New York
specialist tried changing
her medicine. She
gradually was able to
leave her wheelchair and
resume a more normal life.
"From the age of 7, I
never in my life wanted to
be anything but an
actress,'' Hart said. When
her parents divorced in
Los Angeles but were
constantly wrangling, she
wrote a letter to her
grandmother in Chicago
asking to live with her.
She took a train to the
Windy City with a ticket
pinned to her coat.
Hart's grandfather was
a projectionist at a
downtown movie palace and
she would accompanied him
to work. Her job was to
wake him from naps every
12 minutes so he could
change reels. Years later,
Hart was back in L.A.
playing the lead in a
school production of Saint
Joan and an admirer asked
where she had studied
acting technique. She
admitted her only
schooling came from
analyzing actors'
performances - without
sound in the projection
booth of a Chicago
theater. A friend notified
the studios of a
remarkable young actress
in Saint Joan and Hal
Wallis at Paramount, sent
a scout to check her out.
He ended up recommending
Hart, and a film test and
contract soon followed.
 She
made her screen debut as Elvis' love interest in Loving You
1957. "I had no idea who Elvis Presley was? When I first met
him, he was just a charming young boy with long sideburns.
He
couldn't have been more gracious. He
jumped to his feet and said, 'Good
afternoon, Miss Dolores.' He and Gary
Cooper were the only ones in Hollywood
who called me that.'' Hart also
co-starred with Elvis in King Creole
and appeared in Wild is the Wind with
Anthony Quinn and Lonely Hearts' with
Montgomery Clift. "I was never a star.
Being a
star means your name is above the
title. Mine never was,'' she insisted.
"I really loved the acting.'' During
the making of the The Plunderers 1959
with Jeff Chandler she looked in the
mirror and heard a voice saying:
"You're really enjoying this, but
you're not going to do this much
longer.'' After nine months in New
York with the play The Pleasure of His
Company she complained to a friend
that she was weary.
The
friend recommended a retreat at a
Connecticut monastery. Hart was
hesitant but decided to go. She found
a remarkable peace. She continued
returning to the monastery twice a
year. Back in Hollywood, she became
engaged to businessman Don Robinson.
One
night, she related, he asked her, "Do
you love me?'' She answered, "Yes, I
love you.'' He asked her again. Same
answer. "It doesn't sound right,'' he
said. The engagement was canceled, and
in December 1962, she flew to
Connecticut, never to return - until
now. Mother Dolores is proud of one
element of her Hollywood life: being
invited to become a member of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences. She is still a member and
votes each year for the Academy
Awards.
Does that
mean she sees all the nominees, no
matter how bawdy? "Yes, I do,'' she
replied with a smile. "If you're a
Benedictine, as I am, you're supposed
to be capable of integrating
anything.''
June
Juanico |
Julie Parrish |
Ann Margret
Anita Wood |
Barbara Leigh |
Joan
Blackman
Barbara
Eden |
Deborah Walley | Kathy
Westmoreland
|Donna
Presley |
Priscilla Presley
Britney
Spears |
Elvis' Granddaughter
|
