Elvis Presley 'Regretted' Not Doing Barbra Streisand's A Star Is Born, Says Priscilla (Exclusive)

Elvis Presley almost acted in 1976 A star is born.

Barbra Streisand initially had the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll in mind to play her on-screen love interest in the film, but Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told him not to take the part. The role eventually went to Kris Kristofferson.

“Barbra offered him the part,” Elvis’ ex-wife Priscilla recalls to PEOPLE. “The colonel answered him from that word: ‘Oh, that will not be good. She will be in charge, not you. Her film, not yours.’ Elvis regretted it because he felt he could have played the part.”

Elvis’ complicated dynamic with Parker is explored in a new Netflix documentary The Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley (streaming now). The film looks back at how Parker got Elvis into a multi-year movie deal after he returned from the army in 1960.

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Over time, Elvis became increasingly frustrated with the scenarios that were presented to him.

“He was reading the script one day and threw it across the room and said, ‘I’m not going to do it,'” says his longtime friend Jerry Schilling. “The Colonel loved Elvis and vice versa, but Elvis outgrew the Colonel.”

Jerry Schilling in The Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley.

Netflix

Priscilla, 79, says he “wanted to be in great movies, not the dumb movies he loved girls! girls! girls! That wasn’t Elvis.”

“The colonel didn’t really understand him at all,” she says. “It was hard for both Jerry and me, but you couldn’t say anything to the colonel. You just had to keep quiet.”

Elvis Presley admits ‘Hollywood image of me was wrong’ in rare vulnerable moment shown in new doc (Exclusive)

Jerry Schilling and Priscilla Presley in New York in May 2022. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Schilling adds that Elvis “called James Dean a genius, and he loved Marlon Brando.” After Dean’s death at age 24 in 1955, Schilling says Parker approached producer Hal Wallis about having Elvis take over Dean’s role in 1958. the king of Creole.

“The colonel went to Hal and said, ‘What about Elvis for this movie?'” says Schilling. “Because Elvis really wanted movies like that. Hal went to Michael Curtiz, the director, and he said, ‘No Elvis.’ Hal and the Colonel said, ‘Why don’t you just have lunch, just meet him?’ Michael fell in love with Elvis as an actor. At the end of that picture, which was his fourth film, Elvis came up to Michael and said, ‘Thank you, Mr. Curtiz.'”

Priscilla Presley talks about what ‘liberated’ her from being known only as Elvis Presley’s wife

Film roles that followed the king of Creole they fulfilled Elvis less creatively, but he managed to breathe new life into his career with his ‘68 Special return which aired on NBC on December 3, 1968.

Although Parker tried to talk him into doing a Christmas special for the family, Elvis insisted on returning to his rock roots.

“The Colonel, he came from the old school where he wanted Elvis to be Bing Crosby doing a Christmas special, instead of doing sexy rock and roll gospel, like the ’68 special,” Schilling says.

Elvis Presley during his 1968 ‘Comeback Special’ on NBC.

Gary Null/NBC Universal via Getty

The special became NBC’s most-watched show of the year. Since then, Elvis has dedicated himself to live performances, and he played hundreds more concerts before his death at the age of 42 in 1977.

“I feel strongly that I lost a friend at an early age through creative disillusionment. I know I did,” says Schilling. “That creative disillusionment caused other problems. But when he had a challenge like that Special ’68he would go to training like Muhammad Ali. He’d lose 20 pounds.”

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Source: HIS Education