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Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, Née Priscilla Ann Wagner (born May 24, 1945) is an American model, author and actress and wife of rock 'n' roll singer and musician Elvis Presley. Her biological father, James Wagner, was a pilot who was killed in a plane crash when Priscilla was just an infant. Her mother, Norwegian-American Anna Lillian Iversen, then married Paul Beaulieu, a United States Air Force officer. Beaulieu took over the raising of Priscilla and is known as her father. The Beaulieus were stationed in West Germany at the same time as Elvis during his stint in the United States Army. Priscilla was 14 years old when she met Elvis in Wiesbaden. Elvis managed to talk the extremely reluctant Beaulieus into allowing Priscilla to live with his father (Vernon Presley) and stepmother, Dee Presley, at a home Elvis purchased on Heritage Drive in Memphis. The seventeen-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu "worked" on her mother to get her support but before finally agreeing, her still reluctant and protective father flew with her to Los Angeles where Presley was filming Fun in Acapulco. After discussing the "rules," she and her father flew to Memphis where they met with Vernon Presley, made arrangements for Priscilla's enrolment in the Immaculate Conception school and her father confirmed her living arrangements at Vernon Presley's house. In Elvis and Me, Beaulieu recounted how Elvis would stay up all night and sleep most of the day. If he wanted to go out, he would rent out the venue and invite friends, family and fans, or arrange with store owners to shop after hours when the store was closed. She and Presley were married on May 1, 1967 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Aladdin Hotel, and daughter Lisa Marie was born nine months later on February 1, 1968. They separated in February of 1972 and were divorced in October of 1973. Their divorce provided for mutual custody of Lisa Marie, who lived with Priscilla in Los Angeles, California and with her father at Graceland. Priscilla is not often credited for a profound business acumen. After Elvis' father's death in 1979, Priscilla served as co-executor of his estate. Graceland itself cost $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Lisa Marie's inheritance to $5 million. Priscilla examined other famous house/museums, and hired a CEO to turn Graceland into a money maker. She became the chairwoman and president of Elvis Presley Enterprises. After Graceland opened to the public in 1982, the enterprise's fortunes soared and eventually the trust grew to be worth over $100 million. In addition, in 2000, Priscilla was elected to the board of directors of MGM, with the prime vote coming from Kirk Kerkorian, who dated Priscilla in the 1970s and reportedly wanted to marry her. After her divorce from Elvis, Priscilla began a boutique and ran it for five years before getting into modeling and acting. After signing with the William Morris Agency, Priscilla made her television debut in 1980 as a co-host of the ABC series Those Amazing Animals with the legendary Burgess Meredith. She went on to portray the lead role of Jenna Wade on the soap opera Dallas from 1983 to 1988 and starred opposite Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun gag movie trilogy. In addition, she starred in the feature film Breakfast with Einstein, executive-produced the feature film Finding Graceland and made guest appearances on Melrose Place, Touched by an Angel and Spin City. The television version of Elvis and Me was produced by her production company, Navarone Productions. As late as 2003, she planned to develop a Broadway musical about her life. Priscilla developed four perfumes in the 1990s. Two, Moments and Experiences, were very successful in Europe, and a third, Indian Summer, hit American shelves in 1996, followed by "Roses and More". In 2006, Priscilla flew to Australia for the debut of her worldwide line of bed linens, called the Priscilla Presley Collection. She partnered with Australian designer Bruno Schiavi for the line. Priscilla lived with Brazilian screenwriter-director Marco Garibaldi since 1984-- he wrote a script that she read, hoping to produce. Their son, Navarone, was born on March 1, 1987. The two separated after 22 years in April 2006. She has lived in the same Beverly Hills mansion since 1974. Prior to that, Priscilla was involved with Mike Edwards, a model, in the 1970s after her divorce from Elvis. Edwards recounts the tale of their relationship in his book Priscilla, Elvis, and Me. They lived together for seven years. Priscilla and her daughter had a tempestuous relationship when Lisa was a teenager and using drugs, but theirs has since matured into a smoother, more understanding mother-daughter relationship. Lisa Marie even imitated Priscilla by marrying not the King of Rock 'n' Roll but the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Lisa Marie herself now has a daughter, Riley Keough, who models for John Galliano. Priscilla and Lisa Marie are both Scientologists, introduced to the religion in 1979 by John Travolta. Of the group, Priscilla said in 1996, "You get answers, and that's very different from other religions. It's gotten me back to basics." Priscilla was awarded an honorary degree from Rhodes College.
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