DOLORES HART IS THE ACTRESS WHO LEFT HOLLYWOOD TO BE A NUN
Agencies, Mexico City.- Dolores Hart was born on October 20, 1939 and today, at 82 years old, she continues her work in the Benedictine order at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, in Connecticut (USA). ). However, between 1957 and 1963 she dedicated herself fully to her artistic side, making the dream of every actor come true, working in Hollywood and Broadway at her whim.
His passion for cinema was born as a child through the two male figures in her life. On the one hand, her father, Bert Hicks, an actor whom she used to accompany on filming when she visited him in Beverly Hills (her parents divorced when she was 3 years old). And on the other, hers, her grandfather, a movie projectionist who infected him with her love for the seventh art. Dolores grew up with her grandparents in Chicago, watching movies with no sound in the theater where the man works so as not to wake him up while he was taking a nap. Very Cinema Paradise.
At the age of 10 she converted to Catholicism but never thinking of dedicating herself fully to her religion. Her sights were set on Hollywood and so, at 11, she went back to live with her mother in Beverly Hills. Her film debut came when she was only 17 years old and no less than playing Elvis Presley's love interest in Loving You (1957). Her sweetness and her chemistry with the king of rock caught the attention of the industry and she promptly signed a 7-year contract with a studio. She was showered with offers from her and she even returned to work with Presley in another film, The Neighborhood Against Me (1958).
At the age of 20, she had already appeared in several feature films and made her debut on Broadway, garnering awards and nominations for the prestigious Tony. Her career was unstoppable. Her success was such that she became one of the most desired female leads in Hollywood, leading casts in several productions while Warren Beatty offered to remove her from the contract she had with MGM and take her to 20th Century Fox with a million dollar contract. of dollars.
However, as the world watched a famous young woman having the time of her life, she lived with a constant doubt. In a short film dedicated to her story, and nominated for an Oscar in 2012, titled God is the bigger Elvis, Dolores says that as a child she prayed to be an actress and that she was always aware of the power of her faith, although she had no desire to become a nun. Her religious adventure began unknowingly when she accepted the advice of a friend who had recommended that she take a break at Regina Laudis Abbey due to the great fatigue she accumulated after spending nine uninterrupted months on the Broadway stage. Initially, and considering that she was only in her early 20s, she had no desire to spend her time with Benedictine nuns, but eventually she left discovering a place that made her feel at peace and allowed her to find herself. . Back then she did not think to follow the same footsteps as the nuns around her and she left rested with the desire to return later.
And as her rise continued and her offerings continued to fall into her lap, she thought about going back to the abbey. In that place she had strengthened her faith and she couldn't wait to return.
Many will wonder if she had affairs or relationships during that time, after all she was gorgeous and successful. The truth is that she did, she fell deeply in love with an architect named Don Robinson who, on her first date, after having dinner for three hours, asked her to marry him. She asked him for a break and they were together for five years until they got engaged. In three weeks they already had the whole wedding planned. Dolores came to try on dresses and send the invitations, while he began to work on her future house. However, unbeknownst to him, she was still hesitant.
On one occasion, Dolores confessed to the Mother Superior of the abbey that the religious bug was biting her and she was considering whether she should follow her destiny as a nun, but the nun told her no, to continue doing her job in Hollywood, that it was very young and it was not the time. But a few days before the wedding she received a letter. It was her mother superior telling her that if she continued to hesitate, then it was her time. And so, during an engagement party, she confessed to Robinson that she had made up her mind. She was leaving him, her career and her life behind her, she was going to be a nun. The man collapsed from the bad drink he took. She was only 24 years old.
“It was a terrifying time” says Dolores herself in God is the bigger Elvis, a highly recommended short film. It's barely half an hour long, but hearing this woman's story is not only eye-opening, it also offers another perspective on the hard life of Benedictine nuns. All of them women who once had successful careers, partners and relationships but without finding the depth of life that they found being nuns. Dolores is shown as a modern nun with a natural empathy, who lives her days fulfilling her role “helping people discover that they can always find hope, and if they find it then maybe they will also find faith”.
The year was 1963, she called off the wedding, she gave away all her belongings to her friends and left. She arrived at the abbey in her wedding dress. "She was in love with God" she tells in the documentary short film. Meanwhile, her latest movie, Come fly with me canceled her promotion plans after losing her star.
And what happened to Don Robinson? He, well, he loved her all her life. His story is as sad as it is romantic, depending on how you look at it. She had partners and tried to give herself another chance at love but she never felt the same again. She never married. He and Dolores stayed close for the rest of her lives as Don de Ella visited her every Christmas and Easter. And he did it for the rest of his life for 47 years until his death in 2011.
Undoubtedly the news surprised more than one at the time. Not just poor Don. Although Dolores was not known in the universe of parties and industry scandals, she was forging a career focused on liberal, smiling and mischievous characters that had nothing to do with her new religious facet.
"I never felt that she was leaving Hollywood," Dolores said in the documentary. For her it was a natural step, a personal decision. A vocation that she came suddenly and without looking for it. She had nothing to do with fame or money, her place was somewhere else. And so she entered the abbey, the only cloistered Benedictine monastery in the US, one of 36 nuns who follow a strict daily routine of praying, prayers and chores.
In this place, the nuns have three periods of silence and sing seven times a day and do all kinds of work, sharing a bathroom for every ten of them. For Dolores, this change was a shock that took her some time to assimilate, but she remained there. "Prayer gives me the certainty that God exists," she confesses with a smile.
Regardless, she never stopped feeling that she was an actress. As the Mother Superior told her on one occasion, she was beginning to fulfill another character in her life. She even founded a theater inside the abbey, with the help of her friends Paul Newman and Patricia Neal, which performs in the open air every year and where she herself helped young people find their calling on stage for years. Moreover, she has been in charge of filming and documenting the history of the monastery and she remains close to Hollywood. Not many know it but she, since the closing of it, is one of the voting members of the Academy. That's right, she votes in the Oscars every year since 1960, being the only voting nun of the institution. Also, she published her autobiography in 2013 where she recounted the whole story of her.
Perhaps they do not remember it, but in 2012 some noticed the presence of a nun on the red carpet of the Oscars. It was Dolores who attended accompanying the documentary short film in its nomination.
That a Hollywood star decides to leave the film industry when he is on the crest of the wave does not happen often. Rarely. What's more, when we read stories of forgotten or missing stars from the screen, the background is usually related to lack of work, scandals or characters fleeing the industry overwhelmed by fame. And if some others, like Grace Kelly, left everything for love, there are those who did it for a different love. In this case, Dolores's love for God.
Whether we are religious or not, I think Dolores Hart's story holds a precious lesson about personal commitment to our own dreams. To follow them, to pay attention to ourselves and listen to that inner voice that is never wrong. Another thing is we are prepared to listen to it.
