Lisa Marie Presley, Rock Legend’s Daughter, Dies at 54

Lisa Marie Presley in 2015.
Getty Images

Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of rock legend Elvis, died Thursday at the age of 54. Presley was rushed to a hospital earlier in the day after suffering a suspected cardiac arrest.

“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” her mother, Priscilla Presley, said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”

Priscilla Presley said on Twitter on Thursday afternoon that her daughter had been receiving medical attention but didn’t share information about the incident.

Presley collapsed and had trouble breathing suffered after cardiac arrest at a home near Calabasas, California, on Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Times. Presley had been living at the home of her ex-husband Danny Keough since she sold her own Calabasas home after the 2020 suicide of their 27-year-old son, Benjamin Keough, the Times reported.

Her death came just two days after Presley attended the Golden Globe Awards, where actor Austin Butler won best actor in a drama motion picture for his portrayal of her father in Baz Luhrmann’s film Elvis.

Presley, who was 9 years old when her father died in 1977, told Extra during an interview ahead of the awards ceremony Tuesday that she was blown away by Butler’s ability to capture her father’s mannerisms and voice.

“I adore him [Butler]. I was mind-blown, truly, I actually had to take five days to process it because it was so spot-on and authentic,” Presley said.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on Feb. 1, 1968, Presley grew up in the spotlight created by her famous father’s legacy. After her parents divorced in 1973, much of her childhood was divided between her father’s Graceland mansion in Memphis and her mother’s home in Los Angeles. She also followed in his musical footsteps, releasing three rock albums that blended country, folk and blues while paying homage to her father’s iconic sound.

Presley became sole heir to her father’s massive estate following his death on Aug. 16, 1977, at 42 of a cardiac arrest at his Graceland mansion. Her mother, as executor of her ex-husband’s estate, co-founded Elvis Presley Enterprises to manage all Elvis image rights and remaining royalties, turning Graceland into a tourist mecca. 

When she became eligible to inherit her father’s fortune in 1993, she instead used the funds to form the Elvis Presley Trust, which is devoted to managing the estate.

The spotlight on her life intensified with her string of celebrity relationships, particularly her two-year marriage to Michael Jackson in 1994 — a union that was billed as marrying the daughter of the king of rock n’ roll with the king of pop. In 2002, she was also briefly married to actor Nicolas Cage.

Presley married Danny Keough in 1998, having a daughter and son together before divorcing in 1994. In 2006, she married musician and producer Michael Lockwood, with whom she had twin daughters before divorcing in 2016.