News

Actress-turned-nun speaks at Holy Name of Mary Parish

Posted

A nun who once acted opposite Elvis Presley but left Hollywood at the height of her career to pursue a higher calling spoke to a full house at Holy Name of Mary Parish in Valley Stream on April 16.

Mother Dolores Hart got her start in films when she was 19. She played Presley’s sweetheart in “Loving You” in 1957 and starred with him again in “King Creole” a year later. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her role in the Broadway play “The Pleasure of His Company” in 1959, and went on to act in several more feature films, including one about a young Holocaust survivor and another about a woman who gives up everything to follow St. Francis of Assisi.

She performed on screen for the last time in 1963’s “Come Fly With Me,” then chose to become a cloistered nun at the Abbey of Regina Laudis.

Mother Dolores’s autobiography, “The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’ Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows,” was released in 2013.