What Caused Elvis Presley’s Death? – You Didn’t Expect This.
“Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the 20th century,” the famous composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein told a reporter from TIME in the late 1960s. When the reporter prodded, skeptical, about the cultural influence of other legendary artists like Picasso, Bernstein merely reiterated, “No, it’s Elvis.”
45 years after the iconic performer’s death—with 108 Billboard Hot 100 hits, 129 charted albums, and 67 collective weeks at the top of the charts on his record—it’s a sentiment that remains hard to argue with.
Ahead of Baz Luhrman’s new biopic, Elvis, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks (out June 24), we’re taking a look back at the tragic end of the rock star’s life.
When did Elvis die?
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935, Elvis Aron Presley would become one of the most recognizable musicians in the world by the time he passed away in his famed Memphis mansion, Graceland, on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42.
That afternoon the singer was found by his girlfriend, Ginger Alden, lying unconscious on the floor of the master suite bathroom. Elvis was quickly taken by ambulance to the Baptist Memorial Hospital and, after attempts to revive him failed, was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm.
What caused his death?
Though Elvis’s actual cause of death appears to have been heart failure, the cardiac in*cident is now considered to be a result of the rock star’s longstanding and serious dr*ug ab*use