Dolores Hart on AllMovie

Dolores Hart was raised by her grandparents in Chicago. Not yet out of her teens, Hart was discovered by producer Hal Wallis, who cast her as Elvis' new leading lady in both Loving You (1957) and King Creole (1959). She appeared on Broadway in 1959's The Pleasure of His Company, then returned to Hollywood for her best remembered film, Where the Boys Are (1960). Her pious, reverent comments to interviewers while filming 1961's Francis of Assisi may have seemed like so much hype to Tinseltown cynics; but as it turned out, Hart's religiosity was very real. In 1963, Dolores Hart gave up her $50,000-per-picture career to enter a Benedictine order of nuns in Connecticut; after several years' probation as sister Judith, she matriculated to "Mother Dolores," which she remains to this day.