Elvis Presley rose to fame as a singing sensation in 1956, but his manager Colonel Tom Parker also had the vision of making his client a Hollywood movie star.
That same year, the King starred in his first film, a western called Love Me Tender. In addition to his musical romantic comedies, he starred in three more western films: Flaming Star, Frankie and Johnny and Charro, which caught the attention of western legend John Wayne.
During this time, Wayne was America’s cowboy star. In 1930, he starred in his first western, “The Big Trail,” before making cult films with John Ford such as “The Black Hawk.”
In 1969, the 62-year-old starred in one of his last box office hits, an adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel True Grit. The plot saw Duke play Rooster Cogburn, a tough, one-eyed old US Marshal who helps a 14-year-old girl track down the drunk who killed her father. They managed to do so with the help of Texan Ranger LaBoeuf, a role that, as it turned out, was originally intended for Elvis. By the end of the 1960s, however, the King had had enough of bad romantic musical comedies and returned his focus to live performances with his 1968 comeback special and subsequent Las Vegas appearances.
Elvis’ cousin Billy Smith described on his son Danny’s YouTube channel, Memphis Mafia Kid, how John Wayne asked the King to appear in some of his films. He said, “Actually, he asked him several times.” So why didn’t Elvis accept the offer?
In the end, Elvis’ manager, the Colonel, went too far and demanded that Elvis be credited first before Wayne if he was to play the Texan in True Grit. Billy added, “Of course, it was always handled through the Colonel and at the time he asked for it, Elvis was such a big star. The Colonel didn’t want him to play second co-star or second star… with anyone else, so that was out of the question.”
Because Wayne was already such a big star, the producers of True Grit turned down Elvis, even though he was their original choice for the role of LaBoeuf. Instead, another musician, Glen Campbell, was cast in the role of the Texan Ranger, earning him a Golden Globe nomination. And as if that wasn’t enough, Duke himself won the Golden Globe and his first and only Oscar in the Best Actor category for Rooster Cogburn. The western legend said during his Oscars speech, “Wow! If I’d known, I would have put that (eye) patch on 35 years earlier.”
Campbell – who died seven years ago today – also sang the theme song to True Grit, which would probably have been written by Elvis if he had directed the film. The song was composed by Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black and received both a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
Unfortunately, the demand for a top role cost Elvis another incredible acting opportunity in 1976, a year before his death at the age of 42. Barbra Streisand asked the King to star alongside her in “A Star Is Born,” but after negotiations with the Colonel failed, Kris Kristofferson was cast in his place.
