Date of Birth 8 January 1935, Tupelo,
Mississippi
Date of Death 16 August 1977, Memphis, Tennessee (cardiac
arrhythmia)
Birth Name Elvis Aron Presley
Nickname The Pelvis, The King, The King Of Rock 'n' Roll
Height 6' 0½"
Spouse
Priscilla
Presley (1 May 1967 - 9 October 1973) (divorced) 1 child
Trade Mark
The famous left-sided grin.
The movement of the pelvis that gave him the nickname "Elvis - the pelvis" which he hated so much.
Sideburns.
Elvis Presley's family moved to Memphis when
he was 13. After working as a movie theater usher and a truck driver, he began singing locally as "The Hillbilly Cat", then
signed with a local recording company, then in 1955 with RCA. He did much to establish early rock and roll music, bringing
black blues singing into the white, teenage mainstream. Teenage girls became hysterical over his blatantly sexual gyrations,
particularly the one that got him nicknamed "Elvis the Pelvis" (TV cameras were not permitted to film below his waist). When
he died he had sold over 600-million singles and albums. The first of his 33 films was Love
Me Tender (1956); critics blasted most of his films, but they did very well at the box-office
earning upwards of $150 million. Military service in the late 1950s and the "British invasion" of the 1960s reduced his concerts,
though not his movie/recording income. He made a comeback in the 1970s, but his increasing weight and dependence upon stimulants and
depressants took their toll. Since his death his Memphis home Graceland
has become a shrine for followers. Elvis impersonators and purported sightings have become stock subjects for humorists.