The Greatest Actors to Play Elvis Onscreen

Kurt Russell had the hip swivel down chilly. Val Kilmer nailed the honest, soulful voice. And Michael Shannon … nicely, the credit recognized him as Elvis Presley, in order that was the character he will need to have been taking part in in “Elvis & Nixon,” proper?

Because the King’s demise in 1977, at 42, greater than a dozen actors — and one house alien — have portrayed his stroll, discuss and well-known attraction in dozens of movies and TV exhibits. Now yet another has joined their ranks — Austin Butler, whose on-point hip gyrations are on the coronary heart of Baz Luhrmann’s new “Elvis.”

So how does Butler’s sultry, baby-faced King stack up in opposition to Jonathan Rhys Meyer’s Golden Globe-winning crooner or Harvey Keitel’s over-the-hill rocker? We provide our rankings.

1979

Kurt Russell, ‘Elvis’ 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸

The peerlessly coifed pouf, the uncooked, emotive voice, the frenzied hip thrusts, the gleaming, skintight rhinestone jumpsuit … blink, and you would simply consider, because of this near-flawless portrayal in a 1979 TV film, that Kurt Russell work Elvis. Positive, Russell would not really sing — that was all of the nation artist Ronnie McDowell — however that talking voice is spot-on.

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The 2-part present, which tackles Presley’s rise from highschool in Mississippi to worldwide superstardom, is a showcase for Rhys Meyers’s heart-pounding leg pumps (with memorable supporting turns from Randy Quaid as Col. Tom Parker, Presley’s supervisor, and Rose McGowan because the actress Ann-Margret, with whom Presley was rumored to have had an affair). Like Russell, Rhys Meyers would not do his personal singing, however he lip-syncs flawlessly to a good higher choice: the true factor. This was the primary biopic that the Presley property allowed to make use of the grasp recordings.)

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2005

Tyler Hilton, ‘Stroll the Line’ 🎸🎸🎸🎸

Hilton pops up in 4 scenes of this Johnny Money biopic as a younger Elvis, reverse a younger Joaquin Phoenix as Money. It was one in all Hilton’s first forays into performing — he thought-about himself extra of a musician on the time — however he nails Presley’s slurred vocal fashion and the deeply felt conviction of his singing.

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This romantic crime drama written by Quentin Tarantino facilities not on the King, however on an Elvis fanatic (Christian Slater) and his new spouse on the run from mobsters. However Kilmer’s apparition of Elvis, full with gold lamé swimsuit, would possibly simply be essentially the most memorable half. (That is saying one thing in a film that additionally featured Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and a younger Brad Pitt.) Kilmer’s look tops out at round two minutes and he is credited solely as “Mentor.” However the suave voice whispering murderous ideas into Slater’s ear is unmistakably supposed to be the King’s, and Kilmer aces it.

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1998

Harvey Keitel, ‘Discovering Graceland’ 🎸🎸🎸

OK, so strictly talking, Harvey Keitel is just not Elvis however “Elvis,” a fictional older — and really a lot alive — model of Presley who faked his demise in 1977 after changing into overwhelmed by the pressures of fame. Keitel nails the melted-chocolate high quality of the rocker’s voice and delivers a full-throated portrayal of an over-the-hill King, full with hip thrusts and shoulder shimmies. (the film was produced by Elvis’s ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, and scenes have been really filmed contained in the Graceland mansion in Memphis.)

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2003

Bruce Campbell, ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ 🎸🎸🎸

On this R-rated comedy-horror flick, Bruce Campbell is an aged Elvis impersonator in a nursing dwelling, Ossie Davis is a fellow resident who claims to be President John F. Kennedy, they combat an Egyptian mummy sucking out residents’ souls by way of their butts, and, simply belief us, it really works. Campbell brings an endearingly crusty charisma to the half, and his self-deprecating hospital-bed monologues about rising outdated are surprisingly transferring.

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1988

David Keith, ‘Heartbreak Resort’ 🎸🎸🎸

“Heartbreak Resort” sounds, from the title, like an Elvis-adjacent chick flick, nevertheless it’s really a comedy written and directed by Chris Columbus a few teenage boy who kidnaps Elvis as a gift for his mom when she’s recovering from a automobile crash. (Elvis occurs to be his mother’s favourite singer.) Critics — and the general public — gave Keith’s portrayal a relatively tepid reception, with Rita Kempley of The Washington Put up concluding in her scalpelesque pan that “Enjoying Elvis is like taking part in a Kennedy, practically not possible.” At the least somebody preferred it: Keith’s King, who was fatherly, clean-cut and drug-free, did get the blessing of the Presley property and Elvis’s nationwide fan membership.

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1981

Don Johnson, ‘Elvis and the Magnificence Queen’ 🎸🎸

This made-for-TV film centered on the tip of Elvis’s life and his relationship with the beauty-pageant contestant Linda Thompson, whom he was romantically concerned with after the tip of his six-year marriage to Priscilla Presley. To evaluate by YouTube clipsJohnson rocked a jumpsuit as a zonked-out Elvis, sure, however his high-pitched talking voice was higher fitted to a “Saturday Night time Dwell” sketch than a seduction scene, and his bushy black wig was downright hockey — and that was earlier than the heavy eyeliner and mascara.

2016

Michael Shannon, ‘Elvis & Nixon’🎸

For those who did not say hear a safety guard say, “It is Elvis Presley!” you would not know Michael Shannon’s careworn, sullen Elvis was imagined to be the King. His craggy face is at odds with the King’s easy options, and, mixed with a voluminous black wig, his Elvis smacks of Michael Crawford in “Dance of the Vampires.” The movie, a historic comedy, centered on a 1970 assembly between Presley and President Richard Nixon (performed by Kevin Spacey, who additionally doesn’t resemble his real-lie counterpart). Shannon is a good character actor, however he cannot overcome this confoundingly dangerous casting, regardless of the gleaming gold belt buckle, tinted glasses, high-collared shirt and flashing rings.

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2002

Bonus: Sew in ‘Lilo & Sew’

He ain’t nothin’ however a hound alien. On this animated comedy, Experiment 626 — aka Sew — makes use of a black wig, white jumpsuit and ukulele to indulge Lilo as she tries to show him to be a mannequin citizen. And truthfully, based mostly on the variety of beachgoers who swooned once they acquired one in all his flirtatious winks, we might must crown him the hip-swivel champion.

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