Joan Blackman, Elvis’ Love Interest in ‘Blue Hawaii’ and ‘Kid Galahad,’ Dies at 87

Joan Blackman, who played women that Elvis Presley ultimately could not resist in Blue Hawaii and Kid Galahad , has died. She was 87.

Blackman died March 16 at a hospital in Santa Rose, California, her son, Ngai Tarkington, told The Hollywood Reporter . She was a longtime resident of nearby Calistoga.

The San Francisco native also portrayed the first wife of a struggling actor (Anthony Franciosa) in the Hall Wallis-produced, Dean Martin -starring Career (1959) and recurred on the ABC primetime soap Peyton Place during its second season (1965-66) as Marion Fowler, wife of district attorney John Fowler (John Kerr). Related Stories Movies Abbe Lane, Glamorous Singer and Actress, Dies at 93 Movies Jean Lodge, British Actress and Mother of 'Nanny' Actor Charles Shaughnessy, Dies at 99

The raven-haired Blackman had appeared as a member of a family visited by a goofy alien played by Jerry Lewis in Visit to a Small Planet (1960), directed by Norman Taurog. She then reunited with Wallis and Taurog as the tour guide Maile Duval in Blue Hawaii (1961), the first of three Presley films to shoot in the 50th state. (Maile and Elvis' Chad Gates marry at the end of the movie .)

That same year, she began filming on Kid Galahad (1962) in which she portrayed Rose Grogan, the younger sister of Gig Young's character, the owner of a boxing camp. She got her man Elvis, who plays mechanic turned boxer Walter Gulick, in that picture as well. (Watch her and Presley from that film here .)

An only child, Joan May Blackman was born in San Francisco on May 17, 1938. Her father, Frank, was a musician, and her mother, Ivy, a homemaker. She took singing and dancing lessons and as a youngster performed on television, at military camps and hospitals and with Ernie Heckscher's big band at the Fairmont Hotel.

After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1956, she came to Los Angeles that December and rented a room at the Hollywood Studio Club, where Barbara Eden also was staying at the time.

She wound up inking a contract with Hecht-Hill-Lancaster (she was the Burt Lancaster-led production company's fourth-ever signing) and made her big-screen debut in Good Day for a Hanging (1959), starring Fred MacMurray.

She said she read twice for the role of Maria in West Side Story (1961) and "really thought I was going to get it," she told FilmFan magazine last year. ( Natalie Wood , of course, was hired.)

Her résumé included the films The Great Impostor (1961), the Richard Chamberlain -starring Twilight of Honor (1963), Intimacy (1966), Daring Game (1968), Pets (1974), Macon County Line (1974) and Moonrunners (1975) and TV appearances on Perry Mason , Bonanza , I Spy , Gunsmoke and Run for Your Life .

Blackman was married to actors Joby Baker ( Good Morning World ) from 1959 until their 1961 divorce and to Rockne Tarkington ( Black Samson ) from 1968 until their 1970 divorce. She spent her years away from Hollywood gardening and singing in local spots around town, her son said.

Her other son, Rockne Tarkington Jr., died in 2019.

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: The Hollywood Reporter. Open at source →