Dolores Hart
| Dolores Hart | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dolores Hicks October 20, 1938 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Other names | Rev. Mother Dolores Hart, O.S.B. |
| Years active | 1947-1963 (actress) |
Rev. Mother Dolores Hart (born October 20, 1938, Chicago, Illinois) is an American Roman Catholic nun and former actress. She made 10 films in five years, playing opposite Stephen Boyd, Montgomery Clift, George Hamilton and Robert Wagner, having made her movie debut with Elvis Presley in Loving You (1957).[1][2]
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[edit] Background
Born Dolores Hicks, she was the only child of actor Bert Hicks and Harriett Hicks, who separated and ultimately divorced, when she was three years old. An only child, she was not raised Catholic, but was converted to Catholicism when she was 10. She stated, "As a child I was precocious. My parents married when they were 16 and 17 and both were beautiful people. Moss Hart offered my mother, Harriett, a contract but by then they had me and my father, Bert Hicks, a bit player, definitely a Clark Gable type, had movie offers so we moved from Chicago to Hollywood. I was a Hollywood brat. We lived in Beverly Hills and I used to visit the lots with him. He had a bit part in 'Forever Amber.' I always wanted to be part of that life."[3]
Hart was also related by marriage, through an aunt, to singer Mario Lanza. She lived in Chicago with her grandparents, who sent her to a parochial school, St. Gregory Catholic School in Chicago, not for its religious education but it was closest to home and she stated, "My grandparents didn't want me to get run over by streetcars."[citation needed] It was actually her grandfather, a movie theater projectionist to whom she turned for comfort in light of her parents' marital problems, whose enthusiasm for films influenced her decision to pursue an acting career. She would watch the films, but without sound so as not to disturb his naps in the booth, and her job was to wake him at the end of each reel.[1]
In Beverly Hills, Hart, at age 11, also had lived with her mother, a restaurant greeter, who married owner Al Gordon. She studied at Marymount College and was later engaged to Los Angeles businessman Don Robinson, before she entered the convent. She admitted she loved him— "Of course, Don. I love you." But Robinson said, "Every love doesn't have to wind up at the altar." He never married but visited her every year at Christmas and Easter until his death on November 29, 2011, aged 78,[4] and helped the community.[5][6]
Using the stage name of 'Dolores Hart', in 1956 she was signed to play a supporting role as the love interest to Elvis Presley in the 1957 release Loving You. After this appearance, Hart found herself in frequent demand, and she made two more films before playing with Presley again in 1958's King Creole. She has denied ever having had an 'intimate' relationship with Presley off-screen. In interviews during her movie career she was often asked, "What is it like kissing Elvis?" She chuckled a bit at the memory, "I think the limit for a screen kiss back then was something like 15 seconds. That one has lasted 40 years." Hart, in 1960, made a sketch of a St. Francis's statue, arms outstretched, while working in Rome on the movie Francis of Assisi.[3]
Hart then made her debut on Broadway, winning a 1959 Theatre World Award as well as a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress for her role in The Pleasure of His Company.
In 1960, Hart starred in Where the Boys Are, a teenage comedy about college students on spring break 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. She starred in a prophetic film Francis of Assisi (1961), in which she played a nun. She went on to star in four more films, including the lead role in The Inspector (Lisa) which was based on a novel by Jan de Hartog and nominated for a Golden Globe for "Best Picture - Drama". Her last role was opposite Hugh O'Brian in 1963's Come Fly with Me. At this point she had made up her mind to leave the film industry, and after breaking off her engagement to Don Robinson, the 25-year-old actress became a Roman Catholic nun at the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, ultimately becoming the Prioress of the Monastery. Earlier, in a New York promotional stop for Come Fly with Me, she rode a limousine to Bethlehem to discuss joining the order. At 24, her final one-way journey to the abbey in 1963 was in an ordinary car, and not in a limousine as reported.
[edit] Vocational calling
In Rome, Hart was doing Where the Boys Are (1960) and Francis of Assisi (1961), when she met Pope John XXIII, who was instrumental in her vocation. "I am Dolores Hart, the actress playing Clare." The Pontiff said, "No, you are Clare!" ("Tu sei Chiara" in Italian).[7]
As a novice, she stated to abbey founder, Lady Abbess Benedict Duss, "I will never have to worry again about being an actress because it was all over and behind me." But Lady Abbess replied, "I'm sorry, but you're completely wrong. Now you have to take up a role and really work at it." Hart submitted a rejoinder, "I was so mad when she said that because I really emptied my pockets, so to speak, and literally had given away everything that had meant anything to me." The Abbess said, "I'm sorry you did that because there's a lot of things you gave away that you're going to need here." When she entered the abbey Sister Judith was her religious name, but she changed it to Sister Dolores on her final vows. "Hal Wallis wanted to call me Susan when I started my movie career, but I was under age and my mother would not hear of it. She wanted me to be Dolores."[3] She took her final vows in 1970.[1] She chants in Latin eight times a day.[8]
In 2006, she visited Hollywood again after 43 years in the convent to raise awareness for peripheral idiopathic neuropathy disorder, a neurological disorder that afflicts many Americans, including herself. In April 2006, she testified at a Washington congressional hearing on the need for research on the painful and crippling disease amid her ordeal.[9]
Hart, who was compared to Grace Kelly, was instrumental in developing her Abbey of Regina Laudis's project of expansion of its community connection through the arts, using her fame to do just that. Paul Newman helped her with funding for a lighting grid, when she envisioned a year-round arts school and a better-equipped stage. Another friend, the Academy Award winning actress Patricia Neal helped support the abbey's theater. Hart's vision was to meet the abbey's needs—development and expansion of its open-air theater and arts program for the Bethlehem community. Every summer, the abbey's 38 nuns on 400 acres (1.6 km2) of rural land, help the community stage a musical, with the 2008 presentation of West Side Story, after previous shows Fiddler on the Roof, The Music Man and My Fair Lady.[1]
The Reverend Mother Dolores Hart is Prioress of the Abbey (since 2001), but she remains a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, having in recent years become the only nun to be an Oscar-voting member.
In Hart's honor, on October 4, 2008, "The Holy Trinity Apostolate", founded by Rev. John Hardon, S.J., sponsored a "Breakfast with Mother Dolores Hart". Held at Rochester, Michigan's Royal Park Hotel, Hart told her story: "He Led Me Out into an Open Space; He Saved Me Because He Loved Me: The Journey of Mother Dolores Hart to Regina Laudis". Since 1963, when she joined the Bethlehem CT Monastery, she disciplined herself under the Rule of Saint Benedict. At the breakfast, several people spoke, including actress Patricia Neal and Maria Cooper Janis, the daughter of Hollywood leading man Gary Cooper, spoke.[10][11]
A documentary film about Hart's life, God Is the Bigger Elvis is a nominee for the 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) and is scheduled to be shown on HBO in April 2012.[12][13]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Loving You | Susan Jessup |
| Wild Is the Wind | Angie | |
| 1958 | Lonelyhearts | Justy Sargent |
| King Creole | Nellie | |
| 1960 | The Plunderers | Ellie Walters |
| Where the Boys Are | Merritt Andrews | |
| 1961 | Francis of Assisi | Clare |
| Sail a Crooked Ship | Elinor Harrison | |
| 1962 | The Inspector | Lisa Held |
| 1963 | Come Fly with Me | Donna Stuart |
| Year | Series | Episode | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | "Silent Witness" | Claudia Powell |
| 1963 | The Virginian | "The Mountain of the Sun" | Cathy Maywood |
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Rizzo, Frank (2008-10-24). "Nun using film fame for abbey". The Columbus Dispatch (The Hartford Courant). http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2008/10/24/1A_DOLORES_HART_NUN.ART_ART_10-24-08_D1_MHBMEPV.html?sid=101. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ Dolores Hart at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ a b c Cloud, Barbara (1998-04-08). "Dolores Hart: How a movie actress left Hollywood for a contract with God". Post Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/19980408bhart1.asp. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ "Donald Robinson obituary". Legacy.com. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=donald-john-robinson&pid=154855384. Retrieved 2011-12-24.
- ^ "Mother Delores Hart". Vocation.com. http://www.vocation.com/DiscernmentLibraryItem.aspx?id=217&terms=dolores+hart. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
- ^ "Dolores Hart Biography". Perfectpeople.net. http://www.perfectpeople.net/celebrity-star/6667/dolores-hart.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ Middleton, Barbara (2008-09-27). "An Interview with Mother Dolores Hart". Catholic Exchange. http://catholicexchange.com/2008/09/27/113998/. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ Mann, Father Frank (2008-08-23). "Mother Dolores Hart". The Tablet. http://www.thetablet.org/08232008/stories.html. Retrieved 2009-01-09.[dead link]
- ^ "Rev. Mother Dolores Hart Returns To Hollywood". Elvis.com.au. 2006-05-09. http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/rev_mother_dolores.shtml. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ "Holy Trinity Apostolate". Holy Trinity Apostolate. http://holytrinityapostolate.com. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ^ speroforum.com, From Hollywood to an Abbey: A life in full
- ^ Maureen Dowd (February 18, 2012). "Where the Boys Aren't". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/opinion/sunday/dowd-where-the-boys-arent.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212.
- ^ Jacqui Goddard (February 18, 2012). "Starlet-turned-nun gets another taste of the Red Carpet treatment". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9090697/Starlet-turned-nun-gets-another-taste-of-the-Red-Carpet-treatment.html.
