"Elvis & Nixon" Part II: King Me

The new comedy, "Elvis & Nixon," which opened April 22, 22 years to the day after President Richard Nixon died, celebrates a footnote in American political-show business history when Elvis Presley virtually crashed the White House to visit the President.

On December 21, 1970, Presley showed up at the White House for an unscheduled visit. Nixon, leery of anything associated with rock 'n' roll, refused to entertain his impromptu guest until his daughter, Julie, insisted on an autograph from Elvis.

Julie Nixon got her autographed 8x10 glossy, while her pop (looking
a bit wary here) received gifts including family photographs and a
Colt .45 revolver, which Elvis had matter-of-factly stashed in his boot.

An avid supporter of law enforcement and a staunch patriot, Presley was eager to tell Nixon about his dissatisfaction with the rise in drug abuse and his contempt for hippies and the counterculture. Oddly enough, Elvis told the President that The Beatles exemplified the trend of anti-American sentiment and drug abuse. Presley had routinely performed Beatles songs in concert, while there was no denying the admiration The Beatles had for him. John Lennon once said, "Without Elvis there would be no Beatles."

In the summer of 1965, during their third U.S. tour, The Beatles were invited to Presley's Beverly Hills home. The meeting was filled with uncomfortable silence until someone decided to plug in the guitars for a jam session. Reflecting on what Presley said in the White House, Paul McCartney later remarked that he "felt a bit betrayed."

Presley asked Nixon for a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, to add to his extensive collection of police badges and law enforcement memorabilia. Nixon found the encounter awkward but said he believed that Elvis could send a positive message to the youth.

Taking note of the release of "Elvis & Nixon," the Moviehouse spotlights films, TV movies, series, and miniseries about Elvis Presley. Elvis himself starred in 31 feature films, which pales in comparison to the number of productions about him. Here are some of the most interesting ones, not counting the countless films about Elvis impersonators and documentaries.

Before producers and filmmakers could get their hands on Elvis as a character, John Belushi lampooned Presley on "Saturday Night Live" (pictured below).

In the years to come, Elvis Presley would be parodied on "SNL" by Andy Kaufman and Kevin Nealon, but the most bizarre sendup, hands down, was Nicolas Cage's 1992 appearance as "Tiny Elvis" (pictured below), with Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider, and Chris Farley as Presley's cronies, the Memphis Mafia.

In 1979, on the heels of making the breakaway box office hit "Halloween," John Carpenter directed the made-for-television movie "Elvis" starring Kurt Russell. Russell's singing voice was dubbed by Ronnie McDowell, a country artist known for his Elvis tributes (not impersonations).

Kurt Russell and director John Carpenter got along so
famously that they continued to work together on the
feature films "Escape from New York," "The Thing,"
"Big Trouble in Little China," and "Escape from L.A."

Coincidentally, Kurt Russell made his screen debut in the 1963 Elvis Presley picture "It Happened at the World's Fair." Kurt's father, veteran western movie character actor Bing Russell, portrayed Elvis' pop, Vernon, in the TV movie.

Real-life father and son Bing and Kurt Russell play father and son
Vernon and Elvis Presley in "Elvis" (1979).+

Also in 1979 (less than two years after Presley's death), a pre-"Miami Vice" Don Johnson starred in the TV movie "Elvis and the Beauty Queen," depicting Presley's love affair with beauty pageant contestant Linda Thompson.

Don Johnson gained 40 pounds
for his role as Elvis.

As he did for Kurt Russell, Ronnie McDowell dubbed Don Johnson's singing voice.

Stephanie Zimbalist played Linda Thompson
in "Elvis and the Beauty Queen," but frankly,
we prefer eying the genuine beauty queen.

The story of Priscilla Presley's life with Elvis was dramatized in the 1988 made-for-television film "Elvis and Me," featuring Dale Midkiff (familiar to horror fans as Dr. Louis Creed in 1989's "Pet Sematary"). Again, the singing was dubbed by Ronnie McDowell.

Susan Walters portrayed Priscilla Beaulieu Presley to Dale Midkiff's
Elvis in "Elvis and Me." Priscilla Presley executive produced the film.

Elvis Presley became an unlikely kidnap victim in the 1988 comedy "Heartbreak Hotel," written and directed by Chris Columbus, who directed, among others, "Home Alone" and two "Harry Potter" films. (Co-producer Debra Hill was best known as a frequent collaborator of director John Carpenter.) Elvis was played by David Keith (best known as the hapless Sid Worley in "An Officer and a Gentleman"), "a good actor," in the words of Roger Ebert, "who doesn't look one bit like Elvis."

In his review of "Heartbreak Hotel," Roger Ebert commented, "Here it is, the goofiest movie of the year, a movie so bad in so many different and endearing ways that I'm damned if I don't feel genuine affection for it."

In 1989, actor Michael St. Gerard played Elvis Presley in two motion pictures. "Great Balls of Fury!" featured Dennis Quaid as rockabilly pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis, with Alec Baldwin as his cousin, evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. "Heart of Dixie" was a coming-of-age drama set at an Alabama college in 1957, featuring Ally Sheedy, Virginia Madsen, and Phoebe Cates as sorority sisters. St. Gerard was subsequently cast in the acclaimed series "Elvis," which ran for ten episodes in 1990.

Michael St. Gerard poses on the set of the 1990 TV series "Elvis,"
with Mille Perkins as Elvis' mother, Gladys, and Billy Green Bush
as Vernon Presley. Veteran character actor Billy Green Bush
previously played Vernon Presley in the TV movie "Elvis and Me."  

OK, we said we weren't going to include Elvis impersonators. We lied. The 1992 comedy "Honeymoon in Vegas," written and directed by Andrew Bergman (who scripted the original "The In-Laws" and "Fletch" and wrote and directed "The Freshman") and starring Nicolas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker, and James Caan, featured a pivotal appearance by the skydiving Flying Evises, but we don't care about them. It's six-year-old Bruno Hernandez as "Little Elvis" we wanted to mention. Hernandez eventually became pop music powerhouse Bruno Mars.

 Bruno Mars has landed five #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 since
his career launched in 2010, faster than any male singer since...Elvis.

"Elvis and the Colonel: The Untold Story," (1993), a remarkably inaccurate television film, featured Beau Bridges as Colonel Tom Parker and Rob Youngblood (pictured below) as Presley.

Almost two decades before the "new" comedy "Elvis and Nixon" premiered, director Allan Arkush (best known for the cult comedies "Rock 'n' Roll High School" and "Get Crazy") made the comedy "Elvis Meets Nixon" for Showtime in 1997. Rick Peters portrayed Presley, while President Nixon was played by Bob Gunton (probably most recognizable as the creepy warden in "The Shawshank Redemption").

Elvis famously always drank Pepsi-Cola, but for the sake of product
placement, a Coke machine was substituted in "Elvis Meets Nixon."

The script for the 1998 movie "Finding Graceland" centered on an aging drifter (Harvey Keitel) who claims to be Elvis, years after faking his death (pictured below). Bridget Fonda costarred as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. The screenplay had to be approved by Priscilla Presley, who liked it so much she decided to serve as executive producer.

In the one-of-a-kind, oddball comedy "Bubba Ho-Tep" (2002), an ancient Egyptian soul-sucking mummy terrorizes a retirement home, where, of all people, an elderly Elvis Presley is a resident. Apparently, years earlier, he struck a deal to swap places with an Elvis impersonator. It was the impersonator who died on August 16, 1977. Both Elvis and the impersonator were played by Bruce Campbell (best known as the star of the "Evil Dead" pictures and the "Ash vs. Evil Dead" TV series). Ossie Davis is a comedic delight as a nursing home patient who claims to be President John F. Kennedy; the way he tells it, when his assassination was faked by Lyndon Johnson, "they dyed me this color."

Elvis (Bruce Campbell) and JFK (Ossie Davis) are on a mission to kill them
a mummy in "Bubba Ho-Tep," written and directed by  Don Coscarelli,
an imaginative filmmaker best known for the "Phantasm" series of  films.

Roger Ebert praised "Bubba Ho-tep," citing "the delightful wackiness of this movie, which is endearing and vulgar in about the right proportions." Ebert noted, "Campbell sounds uncannily like Elvis might sound now, and looks more like Elvis than anyone else I've seen in the role."

Dublin-born Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who played Henry VIII in the miniseries "The Tudors" received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination for his starring role in the 2005 miniseries "Elvis," directed by James Steven Sadwith, who directed the acclaimed miniseries "Sinatra" in 1992.

Rose McGowan played Ann-Margret
in the miniseries "Elvis," with Jonathan
Rhys Meyers in the title role. Randy
Quaid portrayed Colonel Tom Parker. 

Singer Tyler Hilton appeared as Elvis Presley in "Walk the Line," the 2005 biopic of Johnny Cash, starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash.

Tyler Hilton (far right) performs as Elvis Presley in a scene from "Walk
the Line" while Joaquin Phoenix (center) broods as Johnny Cash.

Now things are going to get interesting. In an obscure curio from 2005 called "Angels with Angles," a Level 1 angel named George Burns (Frank Gorshin) yearns to be reunited with his long lost love, Gracie Allen, a Level 6 angel. But first God (Rodney Dangerfield) dispatches George on an earthly mission to save a poor schnook named Shoomie. Frank Gorshin, who died in 2005, was noted for his performance as George Burns in the one-man play "Say Goodnight, Gracie" (pictured below).

"Say Goodnight, Gracie" opened in October of 2002
and ran for 364 performances. 

"Angels with Angles" featured Soupy Sales as a cigar salesman, Adam West as Alfred the Butler, and such familiar faces from TV as Richard Moll ("Night Court"), Dwayne Hickman ("The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"), and Jerry Mathers ("Leave It to Beaver"). And, oh, yeah, Sylvester's kid brother Frank Stallone as Elvis Presley (pictured below).

"Tales from the Catholic Church of Elvis!" (2007), advertised with the tag line "The shocking true tales of a Catholic school girl in Las Vegas," starred Mercy Malick, who also produced, directed, and co-scripted (based on her award-winning stage play) the film, which featured Brad Phlak as Presley. In case you haven't heard of her, Mercy Malick is an accomplished actress, singer-songwriter, playwright, director, and aerialist-contortionist-choreographer-fitness model-circus performer.

Jesus (Kellan Baker), Elvis (Brad Phlak), and Mercy Malick
hitch a ride to Vegas in "Tales from the Catholic Church of Elvis."

Christian Slater, Elvis impersonators, Native Americans, a cowboy, a beautiful blonde assassin, a frat boy, two corrupt sheriffs, a girl-next-door, and a prostitute are stirred into the Quentin Tarantino-flavored soup titled "Guns, Girls and Gambling" (2012). (We lied again about skipping films about Elvis impersonators.) The direct-to-video production featured Gary Oldman, Powers Boothe, and Jeff Fahey.

Gary Oldman plays the winning Elvis in "Guns, Girls and Gambling,"
which also features Tony Cox as Little Person Elvis, Chris Kattan as
Gay Elvis, and Anthony Brandon Wong as Asian Elvis.

"Protecting the King" (2007), which dramatized the relationship between Presley and David Stanley (Matt Barr), his stepbrother and bodyguard, cast Peter Dobson as Elvis. In 1994, Peter Dobson portrayed Elvis Presley in "Forrest Gump" (pictured below).

In the 2007 faux biopic comedy "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" (think "Walk the Line"), starring John C. Reilly, Elvis Presley was played no one less than the versatile musician Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather).

Elvis Presley (Jack White) meets Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly)
in "Walk Hard."

An upcoming miniseries depicts an unplanned, spur-of-the-moment recording event that became known as the Million Dollar Quartet. On December 4, 1956, Sun Record Studios in Memphis became the site of an impromptu jam session with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.

The miniseries, not surprisingly titled "Million Dollar Quartet," features Derek Milligan as Elvis Presley. In 2014, Milligan starred in "Nobody" (pictured below), a short film about Elvis' senior year in his Memphis high school.

A few years ago, Australian-born Eric Bana (whose impressive career includes performances in "Black Hawk Down," "Troy," and "Star Trek") was rumored to be cast as Presley in "Elvis & Nixon." Of course, the role in the recently released comedy went to Michael Shannon, who portrayed General Zod in "Man of Steel" and "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice." Nixon was played by Kevin Spacey, who has been honing his presidential skills as President Underwood in the ongoing Netflix series "House of Cards."

The meeting between Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon was swizzle-sticked by Comedy Central in an episode of the tipsy series "Drunk History," co-created and hosted by Funny or Die's Derek Watson. Here, comedian-actor Bob Odenkirk (currently starring in the popular AMC series "Better Call Saul") played Nixon, while Presley was portrayed by the bombastic Jack Black.