Her career as a beautiful starlet was blazing bright in the late 50s. She was one of those teenage star with a promising career, but who would believe, the beautiful Dolores Hart would give up acting and all to become a nun and today, a Reverand Mother.
Dolores Hart (20th October 1938) was born in Dolores Hicks in Chicago, Illinios to actor Bert Hicks and his wife. She was their only child. Despite their religious implication (they were Catholics), seperated and ultimately divorced. She is also the neice
of Mario Lanza, who was married to her aunt. During her parents' marital problems, she turned to her grandfather, a movie theater projectionist for comfort, whose enthusiasm for films influenced her decision to pursue an acting career.
She was reported to appear in "Forever Amber" (1947) as child. In 1956, using the stage name Dolores Har
t, she was signed to play a supporting role as the love interest of Elvis Presley in "Loving You" (1957). She then appeared in Anna Magnani 's "Wild Is The Wind" (1957) and heavy family drama "Lonelyhearts" (1958 starring Montogomery Clift, Robert Ryan and Myrna Loy). In 1958, she again partnered Elvis in his "King Creole". She has denied ever having had an 'intimate' relationship with Presley offscreen.
She was next put on a saddle with Jeff Chandler and John Saxon in western "The Plunderers" (1960). In 1960, Hart starred in "Where The Boys Are", a teenage comedy
about college students on springbreak which developed a near cult-like following. In the film, Hart plays a co-ed who struggles to define herself when confronted with her newly-discovered sexuality and popularity with the opposite sex. Also in the film, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss, Frank Gorshin and introduced Connie Francis to the silver screen.
Hart was then in the biblical "Francis Of Assisi" (1961 with Bradford Dillman in the starring role) and the comedy, "
Sail A Crooked Ship" (1961 starring Robert Wagner). There was a thiller with Stephen Boyd in "The Inpector" (1962). She was more at home in another teengage comedy "Come Fly With Me" (1963, this time with Hugh O' Brian, Karl Boehm, Pamela Tiffin and Lois Nettleton).
At this point she had made up her mind to leave the film industry, and after breaking off her engagement to Los Angeles businessman Don Robinson, the 25-year-old actress became a Roman Catholic nun at the Benedictine Abbey of R
egina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, ultimately becoming the Prioress of the Convent. She chants in Latin eight times a day.
In 2006, she visited Hollywood again after 43 years in monastery to raise awareness for peripheral idiopathic neuropathy, a crippling disease, that afflicts many Americans, including herself since 1997.
Today, the Reverend Mother Dolores Hart is Prioress of the Abbey, but has in recent years become the only nun to be an Oscar-voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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