Elvis Presley

Described as

American singer and actor (1935–1977)

Other names

Elvis A. Presley, Elvis, King of Rock'n'Roll, The King of Rock'n'Roll, Elvis Aaron Presley

Born

January 8, 1935 · 17 references

Died

August 16, 1977 · 16 references

Born in

Tupelo · 3 references

Died in

Memphis · 3 references

Buried in

Graceland

Cause of death

myocardial infarction

Name at birth

Elvis Aaron Presley

Citizen of

United States · 1 reference

Occupation

film actor; singer · 2 references; composer; actor · 1 reference; military personnel; military officer; philanthropist; activist

Education

Humes Preparatory Academy Middle School (–1953)

Member of

The Blue Moon Boys; Million Dollar Quartet

Sport

karate

Genre

rock and roll; pop music; rockabilly; country music; gospel music; rhythm and blues

Instrument

guitar; piano; voice; bass guitar

Record label

Sun Records; RCA Victor

Awards

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1971); Gospel Music Hall of Fame; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986) · 1 reference; honorary citizen of Budapest (2011); star on Hollywood Walk of Fame · 1 reference; Presidential Medal of Freedom (2018) · 1 reference

Spouse

Priscilla Presley (1967–1973) · 1 reference

Children

Lisa Marie Presley · 1 reference

Father

Vernon Presley

Mother

Gladys Presley

Siblings

Jessie Garon Presley

Military branch

United States Army · 1 reference

Military rank

Sergeant

Lived in

Graceland (1957–1977) · 1 reference

Nickname

The King of Rock and Roll; The King of Rock

Website

https://elvisthemusic.com

Wikipedias with a page

216

Wikidata item Q303 (wikidata.org/wiki/Q303), public domain (CC0). Copied November 13, 2026.

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. Presley's energetic and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a mixture of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.
Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi; his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13. He began his music career in 1954 at Sun Records with the producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on guitar and accompanied by the guitarist Scotty Moore on lead and the bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, the drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who managed him for the rest of his career. Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the US. Within a year, RCA Victor sold ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular rock and roll, though his performing style and promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans led to his being widely considered a threat to the moral well-being of white American youth.
In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, he relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. Presley held few concerts, and, guided by Parker, devoted much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. Some of Presley's most famous films included Jailhouse Rock (1957), Blue Hawaii (1961), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). In 1968, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed NBC television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and several highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Many years of substance abuse and unhealthy eating severely compromised his health, and Presley died in August 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.
Presley is one of the best-selling music artists in history, having sold an estimated 500 million records worldwide. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, rock and roll, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, adult contemporary, and gospel. Presley won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been posthumously inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He holds several records, including the most Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)-certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. He was ranked third on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists. In 2002, the compilation ELV1S topped charts worldwide.

Born, in its opening lines

January 8, 1935

Died, in its opening lines

August 16, 1977

From the Wikipedia article “Elvis Presley” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley), by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Copied November 13, 2026; not changed.