Oscars 2012: Mother Dolores Hart, Former Elvis Co-Star, To Walk Red Carpet In Religious Habit

From The Huffington Post

Nearly 50 years after leaving Tinseltown to become a cloistered Benedictine nun, Mother Dolores Hart, who starred in films alongside the likes of Elvis Presley and Walter Matthau during her acting career, is returning to Hollywood to appear at the Academy Awards next Sunday. And she'll be wearing her religious habit.

Mother Dolores, 73, is the focus of "God Is the Bigger Elvis", an HBO documentary nominated in the best documentary short category.

The film documents Hart's unusual journey from starring in dozens of Hollywood films to becoming Prioress of the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn., where she acts as spiritual counselor to 38 cloistered nuns, Sojourners reports.

"It will be so nice to be back at the Oscars. It's such a fun night," Hart told USA Today. "The last time I was there was in 1959, when I was a presenter. This will be different."

Back then, Hart was a 21-year-old rising starlet who had already starred in films alongside Elvis Presley, George Hamilton and Montgomery Clift, USA Today reported.

A few years later, she was at the peak of her acting career on the trail of a seven-figure contract, and was happily engaged to Los Angeles businessman Don Robinson.

But by then Hart's feelings about Hollywood had already started to change, a shift that began some years before when she was performing in a Broadway play , Sojourner reported.

Whenever the play went on hiatus, many actors would go up to friends' vacation homes in upstate New York. But Hart didn't know anyone, so a friend suggested that she stay at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, which offers a number of guest rooms.

It was there that Hart got to know the sisters of Regina Laudis and fell in love with their way of life. In 1963, to the devastation of her fiance, Hart entered the Abbey as a postulant and took her final vows seven years later.

"I adored Hollywood. I didn't leave because it was a place of sin," Hart told USA Today.

After all, Hart was a Los Angeles native who grew up on Mullholland Drive overlooking the lights of Hollywood, she explained in a 20/20 Interview.

Hart had another explanation for leaving, one she says remains just as mysterious today as it did back then.

"I left Hollywood at the urging of a mysterious thing called vocation. It's a call that comes from another place that we call God because we don't have any other way to say it. It's a call of love. Why do you climb a mountain?"

 

From Hollywood to Convent

From America Needs Fatima

Amidst the serene Latin chants of the Divine Office from Matins to Compline, an unsuspecting visitor to the rustic environs of the 400 acre Abbey of Regina Laudis (Queen of Praise) in Bethlehem, Connecticut would have never guessed that among these select daughters of St. Benedict is one Dolores Hart, a former film and stage actress who once basked in the glitter and glamour of the Hollywood limelight of the late 50’s and early 60’s.

Mother Dolores as she is now known turned her back on a promising movie career, broke off her engagement to an up-and-coming Los Angeles businessman Don Robinson, and entered the cloister to answer the call of the contemplative monastic life.

Since 1963, she has lived an austere life following the Rule of St. Benedict in the spirit and time-tested tradition of ora et labora (prayer and work.) Mother Dolores became prioress there in May 2001.

Early years

Born an only child from actor parents (Bert and Harriett Hicks) who were bit or studio contract players, little Dolores found herself moving from Chicago to Beverly Hills in California where she often accompanied her father to Hollywood studio lots. The early exposure to the allures of the movie world spurred her desire to be an actress. "From the age of 7, I never in my life wanted to be anything but an actress," Hart said.

Domestic affairs turned sour as her parents engaged in troublesome bickering which disrupted their family life. Shortly thereafter she was on her way alone to the Windy City where her grandparents lived, train ticket tucked in her coat pocket. She stayed there while her parents tried to pursue their respective careers in Hollywood. She would shuttle back and forth either by train or plane between Los Angeles and Chicago spending summers in California and winters in the Windy City.

A little girl’s conversion

Her grandparents chose to send her to St. Gregory Catholic School for practical and safety reasons since it was closest to their home and less exposed to street traffic. Her studies there turned out for the better as she decided to become a Catholic at age 10.

One day at school when she was alone with the Blessed Sacrament waiting for the nuns to have their breakfast, she approached a sister and told her she wanted “to take bread with the children.”

She went back home and told her grandparents about it and they said it was okay. Soon she was baptized and her mother was thrilled to hear the news.

Back in Los Angeles

Years later Hart, at age 11 and after her parents divorced, moved back to Beverly Hills to be reunited with her mother now remarried to restaurant owner Al Gordon. While in high school she played St. Joan of Arc which opened the doors for her to get a scholarship to Marymount College (currently Loyola Marymount University) for drama. It was at that time when she became obsessed with the idea of becoming an actress often times praying for the chance to get her foot in the front door of big time movie studios like MGM and Paramount just twenty minutes away from her school.

While a freshman at Marymount College she got the lead role (again) in the school’s production of “St. Joan.” A male friend from Loyola University took notice of her remarkable thespian abilities and promptly informed the Southern California studios. Hal Wallis, an independent producer at Paramount, sought to check her out through a scout who eventually gave her the nod and a screen test and contract soon followed.

Hollywood career

She adopted the stage name Dolores Hart, keeping her name Dolores at the insistence of her mother. Otherwise she would have been known as Susan Hart.

The precocious little girl had now grown to become a stunningly beautiful young lady and fared much better in Hollywood than her parents. Groomed as the next Grace Kelly, the demand for her grew likewise.

The influence of good friends

Hart credits her circle of friends, which she described as wonderful and sound, for helping her maintain her faith in Hollywood.

She made particular mention of Maria Cooper, the actor Gary’s daughter, who had a wholesome and positive influence on her. She has only but the highest praise for her best friend who she commends for being clear and true to her faith and not giving in to the pressures of the ritzy and glitzy Hollywood lifestyle. She owed it to her for having met fine persons and setting high standards for her to follow.

The first knocks of the vocation

In 1959, Hart debuted on Broadway with the play, The Pleasure of His Company earning her a World Theater Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress for that year.

The grueling schedule took its toll on her and she pined for a weekend retreat. At a friend’s coaxing, she reluctantly agreed to visit a Connecticut monastery with her, the Abbey of Regina Laudis. Her knee-jerk reaction was, “Ooh! I don’t want to see more nuns!"

But all that changed once she stepped on the grounds of the abbey. There she found calm and serenity. She felt very much at home. The tranquility and sense of stability she felt were in stark contrast to the fast-paced and superficial life in the movie industry where she worked with co-stars and crew for some 8-10 weeks after which they would disband never to see each other again.

The remarkable experience led her to return in between shows even to the point of asking the Reverend Mother if she had a vocation. She was curtly dismissed and told she was too young and that she better go back to “her movie thing.” But that didn’t stop her from coming back to the monastery twice a year.

The final call

However, Hart credits the movie Lisa (1962) as the one that made her ponder seriously to become a nun. Something in that movie drew her to the abbey like magnet. She was never the same after that. Deep down, she felt ready to make a commitment to God but kept it quiet for the meantime.

After Lisa, she made her last film, Come Fly With Me with Hugh O’Brian. While on a promotional stop in New York for the movie, she surprised many when she took the studio limo to Bethlehem to discuss joining the order.

Breaking an engagement

Back in Hollywood, Hart still has an important and unfinished business to take care of – breaking her wedding engagement to Los Angeles businessman Don Robinson.

One night she and Don met at a crowded restaurant for dinner. He perceived what was going on with Dolores. He saw her reading her spiritual exercises that she performed at the abbey. Besides, she wasn’t wearing her engagement ring.

When she broke the news to him, he never felt an iota of rejection. With a heart full of understanding and support, Don said, "I know; I've known it. This is what you've got to do and I've got to do this with you. We've got to do this together."

He adds later, "Every love doesn't have to wind up at the altar."

Thus, the engagement was canceled, and in December 1962, she flew to Connecticut, never to return. Upon embracing the Benedictine monastic life, she acquired the name Sister Judith but changed it to Mother Dolores when she took her final vows in 1970. Currently, she is Prioress of the Abbey and the only nun to be an Oscar-voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Meanwhile, Don Robinson remained single but comes every year at Christmas and Easter to visit the abbey to lend his support.

Coming out of the cloister

After 43 years of a secluded and cloistered life inside the Abbey of Regina Laudis , Mother Dolores left its austere and tranquil environs briefly out of necessity in 2006 to spread awareness about a mysterious neurological disorder that afflicted her and countless more Americans called peripheral idiopathic neuropathy. She went to Washington to testify at a congressional hearing to drum up support for more research grants to find a cure for the debilitating disease.

In October 2008, she was honored at a breakfast event held at Rochester, Michigan’s Royal Park Hotel which was sponsored by the The Holy Trinity Apostolate of founder Rev. John Hardon, S.J.

The meaning of ones vocation

In this vale of tears, God sets out a path for each of one of us to pursue and follow so we can best know, love and serve Him. Each one of us has an overriding purpose whose ultimate end is God’s glory.

Whether ones vocation is to be single, married, nun or priest, God endows each one a particular mission in life. As we mature and tackle the daily grind of our earthly lives, God reveals his will to us, more often through subtle or indirect means, not by imposition but rather more by invitation. And by following His will, we open the door to our salvation and the eternal life.

And if one is TRUE to his or her calling, ones vocation ultimately triumphs over career should a conflict arises. Mother Dolores’ life journey makes this evident to us. Endowed with striking physical beauty, fame and money, who would ever think she would shun the glow of Hollywood and end up being nun? Indeed, God’s grace works in mysterious ways!

In her own words Mother Dolores sums it all up,

“I can only go back to my own experience, which was a long and severe test, and it was not easy.

I would say you can never allow anyone to take you out of a vocation. The fact is there is a promise given in a vocation that is beyond anything in your wildest dreams.

"There's a gift the Lord offers and He is a gentleman.

“I have not been profoundly missed by any means [in the outside world]. My vocation has been totally gratifying and I wouldn't want anyone thinking that in leaving Hollywood I was disappointed.”

The Nun Who Co-Starred With Elvis

Benedictine Monastic for 45 Years, She Starred with Elvis on the Big Screen

Mother Dolores Hart

From The Tablet

By Father Frank Mann

As Dolores Hart, she was a well-known and successful actress of film, stage and television in the late 1950’s and early 1960s. As Mother Dolores Hart, a cloistered Benedictine nun, she has spent the last 45 years in monastic life at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut.

Before entering into a lifetime contract with God in 1963, she earned the distinction of becoming the first actress to kiss Elvis Presley on the big screen in their first movie, ‘“Loving You” in 1957. The following year, she again starred with Presley in “King Creole.”

Ed Wilkinson Photos

Mother Dolores Hart, former star of stage and screen, speaks with The Tablet during an exclusive interview at Regina Laudis Abbey in Bethlehem, Conn. The interview was conducted through a traditional grille which separates the monastic sisters from the general public.

“Elvis was such a sweet, personable young man,” recalled Mother Dolores during an exclusive interview with The Tablet. “He would always call me Miss Dolores. The only other persons who called me that were Clark Gable and Mother Abbess when I was a postulant.”

“I must say, however, he was the most pleasant individual, very gentle and very dedicated to his dear mother.”

Although the two were still teenagers when they made their first film together, Elvis had already gained stardom with his rock and roll music.

“Because I co-starred with Elvis, people kept coming up to me asking if I could get them a lock of his hair!” recalled Mother Dolores with a chuckle.

She recalls an incident that describes the humility and thoughtfulness of Elvis. One day while filming “King Creole,” the streets of New Orleans were jammed with people trying to get a glimpse of The King. She hopped into the back of a limo with Elvis to drive to the movie set. A young girl put her arm into the slightly opened window of the car to try to touch Elvis as the car was moving.

“I remember so well my shouting at Elvis to tell the driver to stop the car. The driver didn’t stop. Elvis then grabbed the driver and shouted that he must stop the car immediately. Elvis got out of the car to check to see if the young lady was okay. He told the girl that he was not as important as she was.

“Later, when I was here at the Abbey, I received a call from that woman thanking me for what Elvis and I did to help her. It was evident that Elvis Presley was a very caring and self-deprecating individual.”

And as for that on-camera kiss? “It was the kiss that lasted over 45 years!” she says with an impish radiance that betrays the actress still in her.

On matters of religion, spirituality or faith, Mother Dolores points out that Elvis did not discuss such topics with her “but many times on the set, in between breaks, Elvis would ask me how often I read the Bible or if I had a favorite Psalm. He seemed to always want to know if there was a Bible around somewhere.”

Elvis loved to sing and record Gospel music. “Those spiritual songs had an unquestionable depth of soul to them,” she notes. “They were like incarnational expressions for all who heard them. Elvis no doubt touched something very deep in the heart and soul of so many individuals. He reached deep down into that place that awakened a call to Christ. I have no doubt that Elvis Presley made the Lord a reality for others not only in his Gospel music but in his countless gestures of generosity and caring compassion. People seemed to be called out of darkness by his voice in those songs of deep devotion, hope and abiding faith.”

When Elvis died, Mother recalled being “deeply, deeply pained. He was so talented, so glorious.”

Spanning a fulfilling and exciting six-year period, Hart worked with such Hollywood giants as Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani in “Wild is the Wind” (1957) and Montgomery Clift and Myrna Loy in the memorable production of “Lonelyhearts” (1958). She was the top-billing actress in MGM’s highest grossing film of 1962, “Where The Boys Are.” “It was the one film in which I had the most fun. It was an absolute blast,” she said. In that film she co-starred with Connie Francis and the seemingly always tanned, George Hamilton.

Hart also played St. Clare in the film, “Francis of Assisi” (1961) and had a role in “Come Fly With Me” (1963) with Hugh O’Brian, Lois Nettleton (a lifelong friend of Hart) and Karl Madden. Other films to her credit are a western, “The Plunderers” (1959) with Jeff Chandler, and “Sail A Crooked Ship” (1962) with Robert Wagner.

On Broadway, she appeared opposite George Peppard in “The Pleasure of His Company,” for which she received a Tony nomination. Her television work included “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Playhouse 90” and “The Virginians.”

Being an actress “....was a definitive ‘call,’” explains Mother Dolores. It was her grandfather (a projectionist at a movie theater) who was the most influential person in shaping her impassioned acting career.

“Although I had always wanted to be an actress since I was seven years old, it was really my grandfather who truly encouraged me to be one. He was the ‘patriarch’ for me and was the primary source of my continued encouragement. I prayed and prayed for years to become an actress. Acting was in the gene pool of my family (her father was an actor), it flowed through our veins, it was in the blood for sure.”

She recalls the rather unpleasant divorce of her parents and the re-marriage of her mother.

Her major ‘break’ came when she was a drama student at Marymount College, Los Angeles, where she had received a full acting scholarship.

“At Marymount, in my freshman year, I was asked to star in a play about Joan of Arc. It was during the run of that play that I was asked to have pictures of myself sent to various producers.”

At the age of 18, Dolores received a phone call from movie producer, Hal Wallis of Paramount Studios. Hart adds, “I thought it was all a joke played on me. I guess the man upstairs just took all my acting ability and put it all together. Now I would guess that’s what some people see as getting the big break."

Mother Dolores Hart escorts guests on a tour of the Regina Laudis Abbey. Stops included the chapel, shown above during noontime prayer. The Abbey grounds also include an outdoor theatre that seats over 200 people. It continues to produce musicals and plays with the help of Mother Dolores. The grounds are also available for private retreats. For information about the Abbey and its gift shop which offers the Benedictine Nuns’ Chant CDs and DVDs, please visit their website at www.abbeyofreginalaudis.com

It was the call from Wallis that led to her role as the striking beauty in “Loving You.”

For Hart, the most gratifying part of being an actress was “getting the next role, always getting the next part” and the most difficult was “...coming to the end of a particular role.”

“I made so many meaningful and delightful friendships and relationships on the set,” she explains. “When those various venues of communications were over, it became a difficult and trying time for me. Even the characters that I played would come to an end. I remember when I played Lisa in the concentration camp in the film ‘Lisa’ in 1962. I had felt that I lost a sister in Lisa when the movie was finished. I had walked with Lisa for many, many days and now she was gone. It left me with a strange and rather empty feeling.”

At the age of 24, Dolores Hart startled the film world in 1962 when she left a thriving and beloved screen career to become a cloistered Benedictine nun. But it wasn’t an easy transition. “...It was like purgatory,” she says. “I felt as if I had jumped from a 20-story building into a pool with no water.” Many times, she felt that she wanted to run out of the monastery.

But she had entered searching for the “will of God” and she wasn’t ready to give up that easily.

Visitors to the austere environment of Regina Laudis might wonder why a young woman with her entire career ahead of her would give up fame and fortune to enter a monastery. It wasn’t because she was fed up with Hollywood or the stage.

“I came here initially at the suggestion of a dear friend. I had been on Broadway for nine months in ‘The Pleasure of His Company.’ I was weary, very weary.

When I came to Regina Laudis Abbey I just knew that this was what God wanted from me. I just kept returning again and again. I guess you might say that I really didn’t come here looking for anything. Rather, I was trying to understand why I was being led into such a place that was the shocking opposite of the life I was living. There was something about the vow of stability that monastic men or women take that was very significant for me. That vow gives one a place where one can find a still center in the midst of constant change. There is that still center in the midst of all that is so unsettling and what appears as seeming meaninglessness in a society that is losing its own sense of history and purpose.”

Asked to elaborate about her “nudge” from God to enter the cloistered monastic community, she added, “It is hard to explain. I guess the best way I could answer that this is this way: if one is married, why did one marry so and so and not another? If you have a beloved pet, why did that one pet enter your life and not another? It was the monastic life that found me.”

She rather amusingly produced her BlackBerry-cell phone. “You see this? Imagine if everyone in the world had one of these and was able to ‘clock’ into the Holy Spirit? But certainly I don’t really need anything like that to explain what I have now in my life.”

In response to a question about what truly makes her happy, she looked intently with her beautiful and tranquil clear blue eyes and said, “To be with someone I love.” The loving sparkle of her caressing gaze and smile still stirs the soul. Mother Dolores has seen the loveliness of the Lord in her life at Regina Laudis. Visitors still may be amazed at her choice of vocation and seek more of an explanation. But for Mother Dolores, no explanation is necessary.