In 1957, an 18-year-old actress no one had heard of was handed the role of love interest to the most electric performer on the planet.
Her name was Dolores Hart. His name was Elvis Presley.
On her very first day on the set of Loving You, the director told her they'd be shooting the film's grand finale first — the kiss. She had to walk onto a soundstage in front of a hundred people, put her arms around a man she'd never met, and kiss him on camera.
They were both so nervous that the blush crept all the way to their ears. The director called for makeup. Gave them a moment to breathe. When they finally got it right, Elvis pulled back and whispered that he'd needed to come up for air.
He called her "Miss Dolores" for the entire shoot. Between takes, he handed her his Bible and asked what certain verses meant to her. She hadn't known who he was when she arrived. By the time the film was released, everyone knew who she was.
Critics called her the new Grace Kelly. Contracts arrived faster than she could sign them. Over the next six years, she made ten films, earned a Tony nomination on Broadway, and stood beside some of the most celebrated names in Hollywood. The industry had decided Dolores Hart was going to be a major star — and nothing about her talent suggested it was wrong.
It had started with visits to the Abbey of Regina Laudis, a Benedictine monastery tucked into the wooded hills of Connecticut. A friend had suggested it simply as a place to rest — to recover from the relentless pace of a career accelerating beyond her control. What she found there was something she couldn't explain at first, only feel. A deep, settled quiet that Hollywood, for all its noise and beauty and promise, had never once offered her.
In 1961, while filming Francis of Assisi in Italy, she was granted a private audience with Pope John XXIII. She introduced herself: "
