Priscilla Presley Reveals Elvis' Major Career Regret

Though Elvis Presley gained international fame as a musician, actor and cultural icon over the course of his career, Priscilla Presley said there was one major decision that her late ex-husband regretted.

Priscilla, who married Elvis in 1967 and remained close with him after their divorce in 1973 until his unexpected death at 42 in 1977, identified the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born as a project that the King of Rock and Roll viewed as a missed opportunity. The movie ultimately starred Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

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Streisand “had offered him the part,” Priscilla told People during a recent interview. But Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, “talked him out of” accepting the role that instead went to Kristofferson.

Priscilla, 79, recalled Parker predicting the film was “not going to be good” and that Streisand would be the actor who was “in charge” of the movie, rather than Streisand’s co-lead. “Elvis regretted that because he felt he could have played that part,” Priscilla told the magazine.

Elvis was known to idolize actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean, and often expressed a determination to become a serious actor in his own right. But most of the lighthearted movie roles he was offered, many of which also relied on his abilities as a singer, weren’t exactly what he’d had in mind.

Elvis “wanted to be in great movies, not the stupid movies that he did,” Priscilla told People, citing his starring role in the 1962 musical comedy Girls! Girls! Girls! as an example. That kind of role “wasn’t Elvis,” she added.

The major movie Elvis missed out on arrived in theaters as the second adaptation of the 1937 film of the same name, which starred Janet Gaynor and Fredric March and racked up several nominations at the 1938 Academy Awards. The first remake, which was released in 1954, starred Judy Garland and James Mason, while the most recent reimagining starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga was released in 2018.

Next: Priscilla Presley Alleges 'Abhorrent' Elder Abuse: 'I Was Completely Isolated'