Dolores Fuller

Dolores Fuller (b. South Bend, 1923 - d. Las Vegas, May 9, 2011) – Actress and songwriter. As a child and young adult, Fuller focused on acting and had many roles in film (including a bit part at age eleven in It Happened One Night), early television programs (including the Dinah Shore Show), and commercials. While pursuing an acting role in Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley, Fuller was transformed into a songwriter. In fact, she went on to write at least a dozen songs for Elvis’s movies, among them “Kissin’ Cousins (1964),” “Spinout” (1966), and “Easy Come, Easy Go” (1967). Through her own publishing company (Dee Records, established in the late 1950s), she helped launch the careers of Johnny Rivers and Tanya Tucker. In spite of her success in showbiz, Fuller is perhaps best known for her relationship with low-budget film director Ed Wood, in whose films she made three appearances including a role Glen or Glenda (a semi-autobiographical probe into the director’s own life as a transvestite.) As a matter of trivia, Fuller objected to Sarah Jessica Parker’s portrayal of her as a smoker in Tim Burton’s film Ed Wood (1994).