Joan Blackman, Elvis Presley’s Love In ‘Blue Hawaii,’ Dies At 87

Elvis Presley bare-chested wearing boxing shorts embracing Joan Blackman in publicity pose for the 1962 film ‘Kid Galahad’. (Photo by Screen Archives/Getty Images)

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Joan Blackman, who starred as Elvis Presley’s love interest in his singer’s classic movies Blue Hawaii and Kid Galahad, has died.

Blackman’s son, Ngai Tarkington, told The Hollywood Reporter that his mother died in a hospital in Santa Rose, Calif., on March 16. She was 87.

Blackman first played Maile Duval opposite Presley’s Chad Gates in the rock ‘n’ roll musical comedy Blue Hawaii in 1961. The next year, Blackman reunited with Presley on the music drama Kid Galahad, in which Presley starred as boxer Walter Gulick.

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Before her films with Presley, Blackman starred opposite Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine in the 1959 drama Career; and opposite Jerry Lewis in the 1960 comedy Visit to a Small Planet. Blackman’s work in television included the ABC daytime drama Peyton Place, where she appeared in 16 episodes as Marian Fowler in soap’s second season from 1965 to 1966.

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