Things We Learned About Elvis Presley Only After His Death

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Elvis Presley's death in 1977 at the age of just 42 sent shockwaves around the world, arguably the most since the assassination of John F. Kennedy 14 years earlier. After all, the man dubbed the King had changed the face of popular music with his hip-swiveling brand of rock and roll, scoring more than a dozen No. 1 hits and selling hundreds of millions of records along the way.

But the "Heartbreak Hotel" singer's story didn't end on that fateful day in Graceland. In the decades since his passing, countless pieces of brand-new information about his life has been disclosed, whether via his friends and family, those he worked with, or in one particular case, a fellow pop star who turned down his advances. So, in which award-winning film remake did he nearly play the love interest? Which world-class sportsman did he once keep waiting for 12 hours? And why exactly did he take his own knife and fork everywhere he went?

The oft-tragic Priscilla Presley made many revelations about her marriage to the King in her 1985 book "Elvis and Me." And one of the more surprising details, especially considering that Elvis Presley later became renowned for his voracious sex drive, was the fact he insisted on waiting until their wedding night to consummate their relationship.

"There was an agreement he made with himself that the woman he decided to take for his wife he was going to keep her that way [a virgin] until he married her," Priscilla later explained to Barbara Walters (via New York Post) while reflecting on the day they walked down the aisle in May 1967. However, that doesn't mean that the pair didn't explore other ways to have fun in the bedroom beforehand.

Indeed, Priscilla also disclosed that she and Elvis would often take Polaroid photos acting out their innermost romantic desires. Suggesting she'd make quite the romantic novelist, she recalled (via Express) how her other half "would take me into his bedroom and then we would kiss long, deep, passionate kisses and his caresses would leave me weak with desire."

Elvis Presley's televised special in 1968 is widely regarded as one of pop's greatest ever comebacks. The King of Rock 'n' Roll hadn't performed live on stage in front of a crowd for seven years having shifted focus to his film career. But he made his return look effortless in an hour-long show that completely rejuvenated his musical career.

However, according to an interview wife Priscilla Presley gave to People, Elvis suffered with major anxiety before the taping started. "People would think, 'How could he be nervous? He's Elvis Presley.' He was very nervous, but he did his homework. He would go and rehearse and rehearse and rehearse."

Remarkably, despite the fact that they'd been together for nine years by this point, the NBC special was the first time that Priscilla herself had seen her husband showcase his talents to a live audience. And she enjoyed the unique experience. "You see all the girls lined up, all the fans going nuts, and I'm looking at this going, 'Wow,'" she added. "And he'd take his scarf off his neck and he'd give it to someone right there by the stage, and they would go crazy. It was really a treat. It was a trip, a great trip."

Elvis Presley appeared in dozens of movies — the majority of which were entirely forgettable — during the first decade of his career, most notably "Jailhouse Rock," "Viva Las Vegas," and "Blue Hawaii." But according to those who knew him best, the cinephile felt he was never given the chance to truly utilize his talents on the big screen.

In a piece for Good Housekeeping Magazine just a year after his son died, Vernon Presley claimed (via Express), "Elvis hardly ever watched the movies he made because he didn't like most of them." Elvis' father continued, saying, "He'd been given $1 million a picture, plus 50 percent of the net, so he'd been well paid for his work. But he had never had script approval or control over the songs in his pictures, or over anything else."

Of course, the reason for this was that Elvis had been pressured into signing a lengthy contract by his power-hungry manager Colonel Parker. In the Netflix documentary "Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley," close pal Jerry Schilling recalled (via People) how the pair once came to blows over a project: "One day he was reading a script, and he threw it across the room and said, 'I'm not doing this.' The Colonel loved Elvis and vice versa, but Elvis outgrew the Colonel."

Elvis Presley fans across the other side of the Atlantic famously never got the chance to see their idol up close and personal. Elvis apparently only ever made one brief trip to Scotland at the turn of the 1960s and that was just a flight stopover from Germany to America. But in 2008, stage impresario Bill Kenwright dropped the bombshell that the icon had also enjoyed a sightseeing visit to London two years earlier.

Speaking to BBC Radio 2 show "Tracks of My Years," Kenwright revealed that Elvis had taken in sights such as Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament while also accompanied by another star, teen idol Tommy Steele. "It's quite something, isn't it — the thought of them wandering around London together," he later remarked to the Daily Mail (via ABC). "Tommy is a very private person who doesn't go into the past. It's only me who makes him talk about it."

Indeed, Steele was entirely apologetic that the cat had been let out of the bag when asked to corroborate Kenwright's story by the same newspaper. "What actually happened many years ago is something secret and memorable. ... I swore never to divulge publicly what took place and I regret that it has found some way of 'getting into the light.' I can only hope he [Elvis] can forgive me," he said.

You might think that Priscilla Presley would have told all there is to be told about her marriage to Elvis Presley in her 1985 memoir. But 40 years later, she published a follow-up, "Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis," in which she disclosed brand new information: Her late husband had put forward the idea to have an abortion once she became pregnant with their only child, Lisa-Marie Presley.

"Neither Elvis nor I was ready for a child," Priscilla acknowledged (via Page Six) on discovering that they'd conceived on their wedding night in 1967. "At my lowest point, I even wondered how I'd feel if I had an accident and miscarried," she continued before adding, "He looked at me one day and asked if I wanted to have an abortion. He told me he'd support whatever I wanted."

Priscilla admitted that Elvis' offer served as a wake-up call and made her realize that she wanted to keep their unborn child. "The enormity of it hit me head-on, and I began to cry," she wrote. "I told him, 'No! We can't do that.'" The "Dallas" star insisted that both parents fell in love with their daughter once she was born before noting how Lisa-Marie, who tragically died in 2023 aged 54, inherited her dad's addictive genes. Here's a look at other huge scandals that rocked Elvis' family.

Beatlemania might have taken over the entire world by 1964. But not everyone was so enamored with the Fab Four. In fact, Elvis Presley, arguably the only other musical star to have experienced such fandom at the time, apparently worried they'd ruin his career.

Speaking to The Mirror to promote her memoir, "Elvis, Rocky & Me," Carol Connors — who spent nine months as the King's secret girlfriend before he committed fully to Priscilla Presley — claimed that although underneath that showman exterior, he was desperately insecure. "A lot played out in his mind," she said. "I do believe that there was a part of him that didn't realize that his career was not going to be fleeting, that his success was going to be forever. ... He was wondering 'Are the Beatles going to knock me off my throne? I mean, look at this Beatlemania. They've invaded our country.' ... He had those feelings. He was quite aware of how important they were becoming."

Of course, Elvis and his manager Colonel Parker didn't exactly help his cause, either, refusing to hit the same promotional and live circuits that had launched the Merseysiders to worldwide fame and spending much of the '60s focusing on his movie rather than his musical career. Unfortunately, The Beatles did end up surpassing his tally of Billboard No. 1s and also ended up selling more records, too. Here's a look at other stars Elvis couldn't stand.

Elvis Presley may have reportedly bedded hundreds of women during his glittering career. But toward his final years, the King tried to avoid human contact as much as possible. That's according to his former bodyguard, Ted Pryor, who detailed his experiences with the star in the modestly-titled memoir, "Three-Time World Champ: The Death-Defying True Story of a Kickboxer Turned Drug Smuggler... Turned Business Icon."

Speaking to Fox News Digital on the promotional trail, Pryor — who'd been hired to support Elvis as he toured across the United States in the mid-1970s — revealed that the star's dramatic weight gain played a major part in his avoidance. "Elvis was at a point where he was so heavy he didn't like to be touched, because he was constantly perspiring and hot," he said.

Of course, Elvis' wishes were often ignored by his rabid fan base, as lifelong fan Pryor explained. "The women used to rush the stage. It was interesting, because you'd have a chokehold around their waist. We would take them to the floor slowly, and our junior bodyguards would take them away." The multi-talent revealed that although his boss was generally nice toward his staff, he wasn't always so kind to the opposite sex, adding, "He lost his mom, he lost his wife, and he was sour toward women."

It would have taken a brave man to stand up the world's greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. But Elvis Presley was obviously feeling brave one day in the 1970s when he kept Muhammad Ali waiting having previously made plans to watch him spar.

In Fiaz Rafiq's book, "Muhammad Ali: The Life of a Legend," trainer George Dillman recalled the occasion when Elvis turned up a whole 12 hours later than scheduled. And he was inebriated, too! The star-studded pair, who became unlikely best buds in the years before the King's death, had arranged to meet at 4 p.m. But with time-keeping obviously not his strong point, the "Hound Dog" singer ended up rolling in at 4 a.m. the following day instead.

Fortunately, Ali didn't appear to hold this tardiness against his guest. "Elvis, from what they told me, was a little high or drunk," Dillman recalled (via The Sun). "I don't know how you want to say it but he was ... and Ali gave him breakfast and they sat and had a chat. Then about 8am or 9am they went out shopping together." So, what kind of retail therapy did the two superstars embark on? A new pair of boxing gloves? The latest Gibson guitar? No, they, in fact, went hunting for antiques!

Everyone knows about the insatiable appetite for food Elvis Presley developed during his later years, particularly those giant peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches. But you might not be aware that the singer always brought along his very own cutlery.

Indeed, during a 2015 appearance on "The Jonathan Ross Show," former wife Priscilla Presley revealed that Elvis was such a germaphobe that he'd take his own silverware out to restaurants to ensure he didn't catch anything from previous diners. And he wasn't a fan of eating at other people's homes, either, due to the same fears.

Elvis stopped short of bringing his own drinkware, but he did have a method which he believed would at least reduce his chances of coming into contact with germs. "He would drink where the handle was knowing that no one would ever drink at that side," Priscilla said (via Express) before explaining that he'd developed such habits from a young age: "I think he just didn't like to put his mouth where other people put their mouth, with silverware, things that you put in your mouth."

The Beatles weren't the only source of Elvis Presley's jealousy in the 1960s. The King was so determined to take the spotlight in rock and roll picture "Viva Las Vegas" that he deliberately sabotaged his co-star Ann-Margret's screen time.

That's according to the director, anyway. George Sidney claimed that Elvis not only wanted to deny Ann-Margret any close-ups, he also wanted to prevent her from singing any songs. However, the filmmaker stood his ground, telling his leading man (via Fox News), "I'm directing the picture. I'll do it my way."

Elvis' prima donna behavior is all the more remarkable for the fact that he embarked on an affair with the actor he'd desperately tried to undermine. Despite his sneaky behavior, though, Ann-Margret has refused to say anything negative about her one-time co-star. "Our relationship was very strong, and very serious, and very real," she explained to Charlie Rose (via Express) in 1997. "And I would not want to betray his trust in death." Here's a look at what happened to several of Elvis' other on-screen love interests.

Kris Kristofferson won a Golden Globe for his performance as self-destructive singer John Norman Howard in the 1976 remake of "A Star Is Born." But according to both his former girlfriend and former wife, Elvis Presley should have been starring opposite Barbra Streisand in the picture instead.

In her autobiography, "A Little Thing Called Life," Linda Thompson — who was in a relationship with Elvis for four years — revealed that Streisand had approached the King to play the leading man, an offer he didn't want to refuse. However, his controlling manager had other ideas. "According to what Elvis told me, the Colonel thought it was a bad idea for Elvis to play a character that might be viewed by some as a loser, saying that Elvis had an image to uphold," she wrote (via Cheat Sheet).

Priscilla Presley also confirmed that this was the case in 2024 in an interview with People, adding that Parker — somewhat ironically — was concerned about Streisand having too much power: "Colonel talked him out of that saying, 'Oh, it's not going to be good. She's going to be in charge, not you. Her movie, not yours.' Elvis regretted that because he felt he could have played that part." 

Not only were fans robbed of seeing Elvis Presley share the screen with Barbra Streisand in his later years, they were also denied the chance to hear a musical collaboration that would have broken the internet — if such a thing existed back in 1977. For just six months before his untimely death, the King reportedly asked another superstar, David Bowie, to serve as producer for his next studio effort.

In an interview with the Orange County Register, country singer Dwight Yoakam claimed that Bowie had disclosed this information back in 1997. "That was based on Elvis having heard Bowie's 'Golden Years,' and I thought 'Oh my God, it's a tragedy that he was never able to make that,'" he said.

Bowie, who'd worked with everyone from Pet Shop Boys and Bing Crosby to Freddie Mercury and Mick Jagger, was a lifelong Elvis fan who initially bonded with Yoakam over their shared love of his music. "I couldn't even imagine 1977 David Bowie producing Elvis," the latter said. "It would have been fantastic. It has to be one of the greatest tragedies in pop music history that it didn't happen, one of the biggest missed opportunities."

Petula Clark enjoyed several Billboard chart hits in the 1960s including "My Love," "I Know a Place," and her signature tune, "Downtown." And her success attracted the attention of a certain Elvis Presley who soon let it be known that he was interested in more than her pop music.

Speaking to The Guardian in 2019, Clark recalled meeting Elvis for the first time backstage in Las Vegas after she and friend Karen Carpenter had watched one of his shows. And she was left with the impression that the King — who was once also turned down by Cher — was hoping to get them both into bed at the same time: "He was raring to go. Karen was lovely, but she was kind of innocent. I felt sort of responsible for her, so I got her out of there. Then I looked round, and Elvis was at the door, and he looked at me, like: 'I'm going to get you one day.'"

Clark insisted that contrary to rumors — which she believed Elvis started — she'd never succumbed to his charms. When asked why she rejected his advances, the First Lady of the British Invasion claimed that even though he was in his prime at the time, she didn't find him particularly attractive. "He was almost too much," she added.