Dolores Hart

Even though she broke off her engagement to Los Angeles architect Don Robinson (April 16, 1933 – November 29, 2011), they remained close friends: she admitted she loved him—"Of course, Don, I love you."

But Robinson said, "Every love doesn't have to wind up at the altar."

He never married, and visited her every year at Christmas and Easter at the abbey in Connecticut until his death.

While Hart was making Francis of Assisi in Rome, she met Pope John XXIII, who was instrumental in her vocation.

Hart initially took the religious name Sister Judith, but she changed it to Sister Dolores for her final vows to please her mother.

Dolores Hart, O.S.B. (born Dolores Hicks; October 20, 1938) is an American Roman Catholic Benedictine nun and former actress.

Hart was born Dolores Hicks in Chicago on October 20, 1938.

She was the only child of actor Bert Hicks and Harriett Hicks.

Her uncle (through marriage) was tenor and actor Mario Lanza.

Hart's father followed movie offers and moved his family from Chicago to Hollywood.

Hart decided to become an actress after visiting her father on movie sets, including the film Forever Amber.

After her parents' divorce, Hart lived in Chicago with her grandparents, who sent her to St. Gregory Catholic School.

Her grandfather was a movie theater projectionist whose enthusiasm for films influenced her decision to pursue an acting career.

Hart converted to Roman Catholicism when she was 10.

By age 11, she was living in Beverly Hills with her mother.

She attended the all girls Catholic Corvallis High School.

After high school, she studied at Marymount College near Los Angeles.

Using the stage name of Dolores Hart in 1956, she was signed to play a supporting role as the love interest of Elvis Presley in the 1957 release Loving You.

Following her movie debut with Elvis Presley in Loving You (1957), she made 10 films in five years, including Wild Is the Wind (1957), King Creole (1958), and Where the Boys Are (1960).

At the height of her career, Hart left acting to enter the Abbey of Regina Laudis monastery in Connecticut.

Hart made two more films before appearing with Presley again in 1958's King Creole.

Hart made her debut on Broadway, winning a 1959 Theatre World Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress for her role in The Pleasure of His Company.

In 1960, Hart starred in Where the Boys Are.

She starred in the film Francis of Assisi in 1961, in which she played Saint Clare of Assisi.

While working on the movie, Hart made a sketch of a St. Francis statue.

Hart starred in the lead role of Lisa in The Inspector, which was based on a novel by Jan de Hartog, and nominated for a Golden Globe for "Best Picture – Drama".

In 1963 Hart appeared as Kathy Maywood on The Virginian in the episode "The Mountain of the Sun".

Hart played a Catholic missionary, who against all warnings risks her life to honor both her vows to God and her desire to continue her dead husband's work to help a community of poor and sick embattled Indian tribes.

It was her last released acting role (April 17, 1963), a month after Hart's last film role in Come Fly with Me with Hugh O'Brian.

At this point she had made up her mind to leave the film industry.

The 24-year-old actress became a Roman Catholic nun at the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut.

On a 1963 New York promotional stop for Come Fly with Me, she took a one-way car ride to the abbey (but not in a limousine as reported).

It was during the filming of Come Fly With Me that she became close friends with Karl Malden, who also starred in the picture.

Malden wrote in his autobiography When Do I Start? that when he and his wife Mona wanted to go out, Dolores would spend time babysitting their kids.

She adored the Maldens' children and quickly became like a member of the family.

It was shortly after the picture that Dolores got engaged and she actually asked Malden's daughters Mila and Carla to be her bridesmaids.

It was after they had a couple of fittings on their dresses that Dolores appeared at the Maldens’ and announced she was calling off the wedding.

A few days later she came over with what amounted to all her worldly possessions, jewelry, purses and knick-knacks, and told the girls to take what they wanted.

She said she was moving away and that it was "an affair of the heart" (her exact words quoted by Malden).

She not only left behind her fiancé, she left her acting career as well.