Dolores Hart - Background

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 the religion 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."

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." 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.

In Beverly Hills, the eleven year-old Hicks 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 architect 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, and helped the community.

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.

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. Hart starred in the film Francis of Assisi (1961), in which she (prophetically) played Saint Clare of Assisi. 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 24-year-old actress became a Roman Catholic nun at the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, ultimately becoming its Prioress. 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.