Elvis Presley: Age, Net Worth, Biography and Facts

Elvis Presley (1935–1977) was an American singer and actor, known worldwide as the "King of Rock and Roll" and recognized by Guinness World Records as the best-selling solo artist in history. This biography covers his greatest songs, movies, Graceland, his wife Priscilla and daughter Lisa Marie, the cause of his death and his legacy as of October 2026.

Age and earnings

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935 and died on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42.

Forbes estimated his estate earned $17 million in the 12 months to September 2025 (Forbes). Figures like this are published estimates, not official statements of wealth.

Who was Elvis Presley?

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, and died on August 16, 1977, at his Graceland home in Memphis, Tennessee. Fusing country music, rhythm and blues and gospel into a new sound, he became the first great star of rock and roll and one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century. His swiveling hips, sneer and raw voice thrilled teenagers and alarmed parents at a time when the color line in American music, and in American life, was beginning to shift.

Guinness World Records lists him as the best-selling solo artist of all time, with about 1 billion sales worldwide. He won three competitive Grammy Awards, all for gospel recordings, received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1971 at the age of 36, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018.

Elvis Presley in numbers

Metric	Value
Dates of life	January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977
Birthplace	Tupelo, Mississippi, USA
Worldwide sales	About 1 billion (Guinness World Records)
US certified sales	Best-selling solo artist in the US by RIAA certifications (Guinness World Records)
Grammy Awards	3 competitive awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award (1971)
UK number-one singles	21 (Official Charts)
Feature films	31, plus two concert documentaries
First RCA single	"Heartbreak Hotel" (January 1956)
Home	Graceland, Memphis; open to the public since June 7, 1982; National Historic Landmark since 2006

Childhood in Tupelo and Memphis

Elvis was born in a two-room shotgun house built by his father, Vernon Presley, in East Tupelo. His identical twin brother, Jesse Garon, was stillborn about half an hour earlier, and Elvis grew up as an only child, extremely close to his mother, Gladys Love Presley. The family was poor; Vernon served a short prison sentence for altering a check when Elvis was three, and the family often relied on relatives and public assistance.

Elvis received his first guitar at a hardware store in Tupelo around his 11th birthday. Music surrounded him: the white gospel of the Assembly of God church, country music on the radio and the blues and rhythm and blues he heard in Black neighborhoods. In 1948, when he was 13, the family moved to Memphis, where they lived in public housing. At Humes High School he was a shy student who stood out for his long, greased hair and sideburns. After graduating in 1953 he worked as a truck driver for Crown Electric while trying to get noticed as a singer.

Sun Records and breakthrough (1954–1956)

In July 1954, at Sam Phillips' Sun Records studio in Memphis, Elvis, guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black recorded a fast, loose version of Arthur Crudup's blues song "That's All Right." Local radio played it repeatedly, and Sun released it with an up-tempo take on Bill Monroe's bluegrass waltz "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the flip side. The trio became pioneers of rockabilly, touring the South and appearing on the Louisiana Hayride radio show; drummer D.J. Fontana joined later.

In November 1955 RCA Victor bought his contract from Sun in a deal arranged by his new manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who controlled his career until his death. His first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel," released in January 1956, became his first number-one hit in the US. National television appearances on the Dorsey brothers' Stage Show, The Milton Berle Show, The Steve Allen Show and The Ed Sullivan Show made him a sensation, and controversy over his dancing only increased his fame. By the end of 1956 he had a string of number-one hits, including "Don't Be Cruel" and "Hound Dog," and was the most famous entertainer in America.

Elvis Presley songs

Elvis recorded more than 700 songs. The table below lists some of his most important recordings and their place in pop history.

Year	Song	Note
1954	"That's All Right"	First Sun single
1956	"Heartbreak Hotel"	First RCA single and first US number one
1956	"Hound Dog" / "Don't Be Cruel"	Double A-side, a US number one for 11 weeks
1956	"Love Me Tender"	Title song of his first film
1957	"All Shook Up"	US and UK number one
1957	"Jailhouse Rock"	From the film of the same name
1960	"It's Now or Never"	Adapted from "'O sole mio"
1960	"Are You Lonesome Tonight?"	US and UK number one
1961	"Can't Help Falling in Love"	From Blue Hawaii; later his concert closer
1962	"Return to Sender"	From Girls! Girls! Girls!
1964	"Viva Las Vegas"	From the film of the same name
1969	"Suspicious Minds"	His last US number one
1969	"In the Ghetto"	Socially conscious hit from the Memphis sessions
1972	"Burning Love"	His last US top-five hit
2002	"A Little Less Conversation" (JXL remix)	Posthumous UK number one

Elvis Presley movies and military service

Elvis made his film debut in the Civil War drama Love Me Tender (1956), followed by Loving You (1957), Jailhouse Rock (1957) and King Creole (1958), the last often considered his best dramatic performance. In March 1957 he bought Graceland, a colonial revival mansion on about 14 acres in Memphis, for himself and his parents.

On March 24, 1958, at the peak of his fame, he was drafted into the US Army and served with an armored unit in Friedberg, West Germany. His mother died in August 1958, a loss that devastated him. In Germany he met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Air Force officer. He was discharged in March 1960 as a sergeant.

Back home, Parker steered him toward Hollywood. Through the 1960s he made two or three musical films a year, usually with soundtrack albums, and performed live only rarely. The films were profitable but increasingly formulaic, and Elvis grew frustrated with them.

Year	Film
1956	Love Me Tender
1957	Loving You
1957	Jailhouse Rock
1958	King Creole
1960	G.I. Blues
1960	Flaming Star
1961	Blue Hawaii
1962	Girls! Girls! Girls!
1963	Fun in Acapulco
1964	Viva Las Vegas
1964	Roustabout
1967	Clambake
1969	Change of Habit (last feature film)
1970	Elvis: That's the Way It Is (concert documentary)
1972	Elvis on Tour (concert documentary)

The comeback (1968–1973)

The NBC television special Elvis, broadcast in December 1968 and now known as the '68 Comeback Special, showed him dressed in black leather, performing with his old bandmates in front of a small audience. It was a critical and ratings triumph. In 1969 he recorded the acclaimed Memphis sessions at American Sound Studio, which produced "Suspicious Minds" and "In the Ghetto," and began a series of record-breaking engagements at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. Las Vegas residencies and national tours dominated the rest of his career.

On December 21, 1970, he turned up at the White House asking to meet President Richard Nixon, who gave him a narcotics agent badge; the photo of their handshake is one of the most requested images in the National Archives. In January 1973 Aloha from Hawaii, staged in Honolulu, was broadcast by satellite to audiences across the Asia-Pacific region and later Europe and the US, one of the most-watched broadcasts by a solo entertainer of its time.

Elvis Presley death and cause of death

By the mid-1970s Elvis's health was in serious decline. He gained weight, suffered from glaucoma, high blood pressure and intestinal problems, and had become dependent on prescription drugs supplied by doctors, including his personal physician, George Nichopoulos, whose license was later suspended. His performances became erratic, although he continued touring until June 1977.

On the afternoon of August 16, 1977, his girlfriend, Ginger Alden, found him unresponsive on the floor of his bathroom at Graceland. He was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis and pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. Shelby County medical examiner Jerry Francisco announced that the cause was cardiac arrhythmia and that drugs played no role, as reported by The New York Times in October 1977, describing hypertensive heart disease and coronary artery disease. Later toxicology reports, however, found numerous prescription drugs in his system, and many experts have since concluded that the combined effect of these drugs, on top of his heart disease, contributed to his death.

President Jimmy Carter said Elvis had "permanently changed the face of American popular culture." Tens of thousands of fans gathered outside Graceland, and he was first buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis. After an attempted theft of his body, he and his mother were reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden in October 1977.

Graceland: the Elvis Presley house

Graceland opened to the public for tours on June 7, 1982. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. According to Elvis Presley Enterprises, it receives more than 500,000 visitors a year and has welcomed more than 20 million since opening. The mansion's Jungle Room, TV Room with three televisions and the Meditation Garden, where Elvis, his parents, his grandmother, his daughter Lisa Marie and his grandson Benjamin Keough are buried, are among the most visited rooms. Across the street, the Elvis Presley's Memphis entertainment complex displays his cars, costumes and two of his private jets.

Today the mansion and its original grounds belong to the Presley family trust, with Lisa Marie's daughter Riley Keough as sole trustee for herself and her sisters, Harper and Finley; Elvis Presley Enterprises manages the attraction.

Elvis Presley wife and daughter

Elvis married Priscilla Beaulieu on May 1, 1967, at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. Their only child, Lisa Marie Presley, was born on February 1, 1968, exactly nine months later. The couple separated in 1972 and divorced on October 9, 1973, but remained close. Priscilla later became an actress, starring in The Naked Gun films, and played a leading role in turning Graceland into a tourist attraction.

Lisa Marie Presley became a singer-songwriter and was briefly married to Michael Jackson and to Nicolas Cage. She died on January 12, 2023, at the age of 54, and was buried at Graceland next to her son Benjamin. Her daughter, actress Riley Keough, is now the family's leading voice on Elvis's legacy.

Legacy and records

Elvis was among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and was later inducted into the Country Music, Gospel Music and Rockabilly halls of fame. The Grammy Hall of Fame includes seven of his recordings, among them "Heartbreak Hotel," "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel" and "Jailhouse Rock." According to the Official Charts Company, he has 21 UK number-one singles, the most of any act, and Guinness World Records credits him as the best-selling solo artist in history.

His three competitive Grammys were all for gospel music: Best Sacred Performance for the album How Great Thou Art (1967), Best Inspirational Performance for He Touched Me (1972) and Best Inspirational Performance for the live recording of "How Great Thou Art" (1974). In 2002 a remix of "A Little Less Conversation" used in a Nike World Cup advert topped charts around the world. Baz Luhrmann's biopic Elvis (2022), starring Austin Butler, introduced him to a new generation and earned eight Oscar nominations. Luhrmann followed it with the concert documentary EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, built from restored footage of his 1970s shows, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released by Neon in IMAX in February 2026.

Quick facts

Full name	Elvis Aaron Presley
Born	January 8, 1935, Tupelo, Mississippi, USA
Died	August 16, 1977, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Nickname	"King of Rock and Roll"
Genres	Rock and roll, rockabilly, pop, country, gospel
Parents	Vernon and Gladys Presley
Awards	3 Grammy Awards, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1971), Presidential Medal of Freedom (2018, posthumous)
Family	Wife Priscilla Presley (1967–1973), daughter Lisa Marie Presley
Resting place	Meditation Garden, Graceland

Timeline

• January 8, 1935: Born in Tupelo, Mississippi
• 1948: Family moved to Memphis
• July 1954: Recorded "That's All Right" at Sun Records
• November 1955: RCA Victor bought his contract
• January 1956: "Heartbreak Hotel" released
• November 1956: Film debut in Love Me Tender
• March 1957: Bought Graceland
• March 24, 1958: Drafted into the US Army
• March 1960: Discharged after service in West Germany
• May 1, 1967: Married Priscilla Beaulieu
• February 1, 1968: Daughter Lisa Marie born
• December 1968: NBC "Comeback Special" broadcast
• 1971: Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
• January 1973: Aloha from Hawaii broadcast by satellite
• October 9, 1973: Divorced Priscilla
• August 16, 1977: Died in Memphis
• June 7, 1982: Graceland opened to the public
• 1986: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• 2018: Posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom
• 2022: Baz Luhrmann's Elvis released
• January 12, 2023: Lisa Marie Presley died
• February 2026: EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert released in IMAX

Photo: Ollie Atkins, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons