Priscilla Presley

Priscilla Ann Presley (née Wagner, formerly Beaulieu; born May 24, 1945) is an American businesswoman and actress. She is the former wife of Elvis Presley, to whom she was married from 1967 to 1973 and with whom she shared one daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. Priscilla later co-founded and chaired Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), which oversaw the public opening of her previous home, Graceland, as a museum.

As an actress, she portrayed Jane Spencer in The Naked Gun film series (1988–2025) and Jenna Wade on the CBS primetime soap Dallas (1983–1988).

Priscilla Ann Wagner was born on May 24, 1945, at Brooklyn Naval Hospital in New York City. Her maternal grandfather, Albert Henry Iversen, was originally from Egersund, Norway, and later emigrated to the United States, where he married Lorraine Davis, who was of Scots-Irish and English descent. Their only daughter, Anna Lillian Iversen, later known as Ann, was Priscilla's mother. Priscilla's biological father, James Frederick Wagner, was a U.S. Navy pilot from Cherrytree Township, Pennsylvania. He married Ann on August 10, 1944. Wagner died in a plane crash on November 3, 1945, when Priscilla was five months old.

In 1948, Ann married United States Air Force officer Paul Beaulieu, a native of Québec, Canada. The couple raised Priscilla, along with half-siblings Donald, Michelle, Jeffrey, and twins Thomas and Timothy. Priscilla's surname was legally changed to Beaulieu on April 17, 1950. Due to her stepfather's military career, the family relocated frequently. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Priscilla stated, "We moved around a lot, and I didn’t stay in one school long enough to make close friends. I was quite shy when I was young, and I dreaded lunchtime at school. I often ate alone."

In 1956, the family settled in Del Valle, Texas, before Beaulieu was reassigned to Wiesbaden, West Germany. Upon arriving in West Germany, the Beaulieu family initially stayed at the Helene Hotel. After three months, the cost proved unsustainable, prompting them to search for a rental property. They eventually moved into a spacious apartment in a "vintage building constructed long before World War I." Shortly after settling in, they discovered that the building also operated as a brothel, but due to limited housing availability, they remained there.

On September 13, 1959, Priscilla, then 14, met Elvis Presley, then 24, at his rented home in Bad Nauheim, West Germany, where he was stationed during his military service. She was introduced by Currie Grant, a U.S. Air Force officer. Priscilla met Presley several times after their initial meeting. During one of these early visits, he invited her upstairs to speak privately and shared memories of his mother, Gladys Presley, who had died in August 1958. Before she left, he kissed her goodbye—this was reportedly her first kiss. After their fourth date, her father stated that if the relationship was to continue, he wanted to meet Presley in person. Presley agreed and arrived in his Army uniform, accompanied by his father. During the meeting, Priscilla's parents outlined expectations for future visits, including transportation and curfews. Presley acknowledged their concerns and offered reassurances, allowing the relationship to continue under agreed conditions. Priscilla and Presley spent considerable time together until his departure from West Germany on March 2, 1960.

After Presley left Germany, Priscilla remained at home, unable to eat and struggling with insomnia. At school, she was approached by reporters asking whether he had called and noting that Nancy Sinatra had met him at the airport. Believing their relationship had ended, Priscilla feared she would not see him again. She was also concerned about Presley resuming his relationship with Anita Wood, whom he had dated before and after his overseas service. Twenty-one days after Presley left Germany, Priscilla received a phone call from him in the early morning. Their communication thereafter became sporadic, with calls arriving unexpectedly after long intervals.

In February 1962, after months without contact, Presley called Priscilla and suggested she visit him in Los Angeles. She was unsure her father would agree, but Presley made repeated calls to reassure her parents. He accepted all conditions: waiting until summer break, providing a first-class round-trip ticket, sending a detailed itinerary, ensuring constant chaperoning, and requiring daily letters home. Priscilla counted down the days until the visit. When she arrived, she was met by Joe Esposito and driven to Presley's home. Soon after, Presley invited her to join him on a trip to Las Vegas, deviating from the agreed itinerary. To avoid detection, Priscilla prewrote letters and arranged for them to be mailed from Los Angeles while she was away.

During the Las Vegas visit, Priscilla began using amphetamines and sleeping pills to adjust to Presley's nocturnal lifestyle. After a second visit at Christmas, her parents agreed to let her relocate to Memphis permanently in mid-March 1963, two months before her 18th birthday. As part of the arrangement, Presley was expected to marry her. Priscilla enrolled at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral School, an all-girls Catholic institution, and initially lived with Presley's father and stepmother. She spent increasing time at Graceland with Presley's grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley, gradually moving her belongings in until she was living there full-time.

Priscilla wanted to accompany Presley to Hollywood, but he repeatedly told her he was too busy and asked her to remain in Memphis. During that period, she read reports of an affair between Presley and his Viva Las Vegas co-star Ann-Margret. She confronted him, and he dismissed the stories as publicity-driven rumours, advising her not to trust the press. Over the following years, Presley had multiple intimate relationships with co-stars, though he denied each of them to Priscilla. She was eventually permitted to visit him in Hollywood, but her stays were brief.

Since her divorce from Presley in 1973, Priscilla has had several long-term relationships but has not remarried. Immediately afterward, she lived with Stone, but the relationship ended by 1975.

Beginning in 1978, Priscilla had a six-year intermittent live-in relationship with model Michael Edwards, which ended after he began developing feelings for the teenage Lisa Marie.

In 1973, following her separation from Presley, Priscilla opened a Los Angeles clothing boutique, Bis & Beau, with her friend and stylist Olivia Bis. Promoting the launch, she said: "After the separation, I had to make up my mind about what I wanted to do, and since I had worked with Olivia for such a long time on my own clothes, I decided to try it professionally. We both do the designing for the shop, and have people who sew for us." Presley supported the venture and contacted several friends in public relations to help promote the opening. The boutique proved successful, attracting celebrity clients such as Diana Ross, Carol Burnett, Jill Ireland, Mary Tyler Moore, Victoria Principal, Michelle Phillips, Dyan Cannon, Julie Christie, Suzanne Pleshette, Cher, Liza Minnelli, Lana Turner, Barbra Streisand, and Natalie Wood. It closed in 1976.

After Presley's death in 1977, his father Vernon served as one of the executors of the estate, held in trust for Lisa Marie. Vernon named Priscilla as his successor, and she assumed the role after his death in 1979. Graceland required $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had reduced Lisa Marie's inheritance to $1 million. Taxes and other costs amounted to more than $500,000. Facing the possibility of selling Graceland, Priscilla examined other public homes and museums. She hired CEO Jack Soden to develop Graceland as a tourist attraction. It opened to the public on June 7, 1982, and within four weeks the estate had recouped its investment. Priscilla became chairperson and president of Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), stating she would remain until Lisa Marie turned 21. Under her leadership, the trust grew to more than $100 million.

In 1988, Priscilla launched her first fragrance, Moments, followed by a series of successful perfumes in the 1990s: Experiences (1993), Indian Summer (1996), and Roses and More (1998). She has also sold products on the Home Shopping Network, coached by veteran host Bob Circosta.

In 2006, she traveled to Sydney, Australia, for the debut of her worldwide bed‑linen line, the Priscilla Presley Collection, created in partnership with Australian designer Bruno Schiavi.

She has helped produce feature films including Breakfast with Einstein and Finding Graceland. In September 2000, she was elected to the board of directors at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 2015, she became executive producer of If I Can Dream: Elvis Presley With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a 14-track album. She said, "If Elvis were here, he would be evolving and taking risks, seemingly like everybody else today". That year she also joined U.S. Postmaster General Megan Brennan to dedicate a Presley "forever" stamp, featuring a 1955 photograph by William Speer. It was her second dedication of a USPS stamp honoring Presley; lobbying for a Presley stamp had begun in 1988.

Priscilla had shown an interest in dancing and modelling and had modeled for a local store once. Hal B. Wallis, a Hollywood producer who financed many of Presley's earlier films, expressed interest in signing Priscilla to a contract. During her marriage, she did not pursue acting or modeling professionally, calling them hobbies. She was sensitive to Presley's opinion, as he did not want her to have her own career, repeating the then‑popular saying, "A woman's place is in the home looking after her man". Priscilla neither pursued fashion modeling nor signed exclusive contracts, choosing instead to comply with her husband's wishes.

She was originally offered a lead role on Charlie's Angels but turned it down because she disliked the show. She made her television debut as co-host of Those Amazing Animals in 1980. In 1983, she had her first professional acting role in a season-two episode of The Fall Guy titled "Manhunter". She then appeared in the television film Love is Forever, starring alongside Michael Landon. Although her acting was praised by several co‑stars, she found Landon difficult to work with. After the film aired, Priscilla took on the role of Jenna Wade in the primetime soap opera Dallas. As the third actor to portray Jenna (after Morgan Fairchild and Francine Tacker), she played the role the longest, becoming a series regular. In 1988, after five years, she left the show. During her tenure, she was offered the role of Bond girl Stacey Sutton in A View to a Kill (1985), but declined due to scheduling conflicts. The role went to former Charlie's Angels star Tanya Roberts.

In 1988, Priscilla starred opposite Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! as Jane Spencer. Critic Roger Ebert praised her performance, noting that her "light comic touch" helped balance the film's broader humor. She appeared in the next three films in the series: The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994), and The Naked Gun (2025). All performed well at the box office. In between, she acted in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) with Andrew Dice Clay. During the mid-to-late-1990s, she made guest appearances on Melrose Place, Touched by an Angel, and Spin City.

Priscilla made her pantomime debut in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the New Wimbledon Theatre in London during Christmas 2012, starring opposite Warwick Davis. She reprised her role as the Wicked Queen at the Manchester Opera House in 2014.

A biopic focusing on her relationship with Presley, Priscilla, was directed by Sofia Coppola. It is based on her memoir Elvis and Me, and she served as executive producer.

Since 2003, Priscilla has been the Ambassador of the Dream Foundation, a Santa Barbara-based wish-granting organization for terminally ill adults and their families.

Priscilla joined the Church of Scientology with her daughter after Presley's death. In 2006, she helped inaugurate Narconon's Stonehawk Rehabilitation Center in Michigan. When Lisa Marie left Scientology in 2016, reports suggested Priscilla had also distanced herself, though in October 2017 her representative denied she had left.

In 2013, Priscilla spoke out against an agricultural gag law that would have criminalized unauthorized filming or recording on farms. In a letter to Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, she cited her and Presley's love of horses and expressed concern that the bill would hinder animal‑cruelty investigations and reduce protections for horses and other farm animals.

Priscilla received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Rhodes College in 1998. She was named godmother of the largest river steamboat ever built, American Queen, christened on April 27, 2012, at its home port in Memphis. The AutoZone Liberty Bowl selected her as its 2018 Distinguished Citizen Award recipient. On July 22, 2022, Theatre Memphis honored her contributions to Memphis art and tourism with a gala titled "Honoring Priscilla Presley: The Artist, The Woman", featuring more than a dozen speakers and a live musical tribute. She has a square named after her in Egersund, Norway, "Priscilla Presleys plass", located outside the house where her grandfather was born in 1899. In 2025, she received Tennessee's highest civilian award for her contributions to the state's cultural heritage and her role in preserving Graceland as a historic landmark.