History Main / Elvislives

In the real world, Music/ElvisPresley died on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42. In common fiction, and in the minds of some in reality, Elvis is not dead. Whether through conspiracy, [[ElvisHasLeftThePlanet alien abduction]] (and later return), or [[Film/BubbaHotep retirement]], he's still on Earth (or a [[AlternateUniverse variation thereof]]).

* While never explicitly stated, in ''Manga/CromartieHighSchool'', a man very strongly implied to be [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]] is hiding in a Japanese high school.

* In the music video to Music/{{Coldplay}}'s "Chrismas lights", the band is performing the song live at the riverbank of the Thames, with a neon sign saying "Credo Elvem Etiam Vivere", which is Latin for "I believe Elvis yet lives", at the top of the stage.

* In ''Film/BubbaHoTep'', Presley retired to an East Texas retirement home. The person who died was an Elvis impersonator whom Presley switched with when he grew tired of the lifestyle, and the paperwork that proves it was destroyed in a fire. [[UnreliableNarrator Or so the character insisted]], anyway.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/BobbysWorld'', Bobby broke his mother's prized bust of Elvis and blamed it on his brother. In the end, a man who mysteriously looked like the bust told Bobby it was best to tell the truth.

This trope also has applied to some other musicians: for example, Music/TupacShakur and [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide]] both have rabid fans that insist both are still alive but [[HesJustHiding just]] [[JustForPun hiding]]. On the other hand, check out the story below of the folk rocker Music/{{Rodriguez}}, with whom this ''actually happened!'' And for an inversion, contrast the "Paul is dead" conspiracy theories regarding Music/PaulMcCartney.

* The titular character of ''{{Webcomic/King of the Unknown}}'' is a {{No Celebrities Were Harmed}} incarnation of Elvis. Ever since a supernatural mishap transformed him (into a fat slob) and forced him to fake his death, he dedicated his new secret life to a [[TheMenInBlack Men in Black]]-like GovernmentAgencyOfFiction known as the IRSU. In all those years since his "death," he's been protecting a {{masquerade}}d world by kicking the collective ass of every supernatural evil imaginable (because {{All Myths Are True}}). Agent H, his MissionControl at IRSU, is a similarly still-living Jimi Hendrix.

* A throwaway gag in the ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' convention book ''Progenitors'' explains that a common rite of passage among [[MadScientist Progenitor]] students is to [[CloningBlues replicate]] a famous figure from history. Of course, the most popular choice is invariably Elvis - meaning that Elvis doesn't just live: he lives and dies over and over and ''over'' again every year.

This trope also has applied to some other musicians: for example, Music/TupacShakur and [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide]] both have rabid fans that insist both are still alive but [[HesJustHiding just]] [[JustForPun hiding]]. On the other hand, check out the story below of the folk rocker, Music/{{Rodriguez}}, with whom this ''actually happened!'' And for an inversion, contrast the "Paul is dead" conspiracy theories regarding Music/PaulMcCartney.

* This situation actually happened for the American folk rocker, Sixto Rodriguez, better known as Music/{{Rodriguez}}. He recorded two albums in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventies early 1970s]] that got some praise but practically didn't sell domestically, although they did enough briefly in Australia and New Zealand to tour a bit there. However, in UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica, those albums sold spectacularly and he was hailed as an equal of Music/BobDylan. Unfortunately, given the country's international isolation because of its tyrannical [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid]] policies, knowledge of this interest was not known outside of it. Eventually, rumors arose in South Africa that Rodriguez had died on stage in a suicide and his mystique grew even more there. Eventually, some fans tried to find out the circumstances of his death, and after considerable digging, eventually contacted Rodriguez's former manager and were stunned to learn that he was alive and well and living in UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}. (And making a modest but comfortable living between live performances on the local nightclub circuit and some studio work as a session guitarist, contrary to rumours that he was found eking out a living as a busker.) Eventually, they made contact with Rodriguez and invited him to perform in their country. With some reluctance, Rodriguez made the trip and was flabbergasted to be welcomed as a big star with concerts holding 5000+ fans at a time. As he cheerfully quipped to his first audience making his supposedly lost artistic dreams come true after decades, "Thanks for keeping me alive!" These events are covered in the Academy Award-winning documentary, ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan''.

[[folder:Film]]

* Elvis would have turned 85 in January 2020, which is well beyond the average life expectancy of an American male born in 1935, especially one with his health problems. So even if Elvis ''had'' faked his death, he would be almost certainly dead by now.

This trope also has applied to some other musicians: for example, Music/TupacShakur and [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide]] both have rabid fans that insist both are still alive but [[HesJustHiding just]] [[JustForPun hiding]]. On the other hand, check out the story below of the folk rocker, Music/{{Rodriguez}}, with whom this ''actually happened!'' And for an inversion, contrast the "Paul is dead" UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories regarding Music/PaulMcCartney.

* A popular recurring news item in the ''Magazine/WeeklyWorldNews'' and other such tabloids. A typical headline is "WAX DUMMY FOUND IN ELVIS'S TOMB!" Other UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories included Elvis faking his own death, working at a supermarket in the midwest, planning a comeback tour for next summer, and having a secret [[BackupTwin long-lost twin brother]].

* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheStand'', a conversation [[TheHero Stu]] has with [[TheChick Frannie]] has him describing an encounter he once had with a slightly maniacal, slightly familiar traveler. After the encounter, Stu was convinced he met ''[[Music/TheDoors Jim Morrison]]'', some years after his [[ArtisticLicenseHistory alleged]] death.

Slowly became a DiscreditedTrope as the years passed into what would have been Elvis's old age, though it would persist by applying itself to more recent cases of celebrities who died in an infamously abrupt manner, including Music/TupacShakur (compounded by the huge amount of recorded material he left, enough to fill quite a few posthumous albums), Music/MichaelJackson and Music/WhitneyHouston.

* ''Literature/SoulMusic'' has a variation on the ''Literature/GoodOmens'' joke -- there's a RunningGag that Buddy looks ''Elvish''. By the end of the story, Buddy has [[Music/BuddyHolly died in a crash]], yet a new boy at the chip shop looks a bit Elvish.[[note]]"There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis": Kirsty [=MacColl=][[/note]]

* In the non-Elvis variant mentioned in the intro, there are some fans of [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide]] that believe he didn't actually die. These fans have [[{{Jerkass}} approached hide's survivors and accused them of lying]], and once proclaimed he would return, alive and well, to announce a new musical act on the 13th anniversary of his death. When this didn't happen, they became somewhat quieter, but there still is a small faction of hide fandom that sincerely believes this. (There was also a famous FanFic, though it was removed from the internet, based on the concept, though the writer was ''not'' one of the believers in it, but simply using the idea for an AlternateUniverse, mentioned above.)

* Elvis was discovered in ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'' working as a bar singer in an alien planet. Ford Prefect recognizes him while Arthur Dent doesn't, which is [[{{Irony}} ironic]] (because Arthur is from Earth while Ford is an alien).

* Some newspapers lying on the ground in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' will read "Zombie Elvis Found!".

* The ElvisImpersonator Orion (real name Jimmy Ellis) built a career in the 1970s by performing wearing a mask, with the [[KayfabeMusic kayfabe backstory]] of being a superstar who had faked his own death. Despite having a completely different build and eye colour to the real Elvis, his fans's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief was helped by Orion's uncanny voice, virtually indistinguishable from the original. Ellis had never wanted to be an Elvis impersonator but failed to be able to get recognition on his own terms due to his identical voice to Elvis, even recording a single called "I'm Not Trying To Be Like Elvis" under his Jimmy Ellis identity before becoming Orion; in 1983, he took off his mask during a performance, and lost all of his fame and career overnight. The twist is that Orion may have been Elvis's half-brother -- in addition to having Elvis's exact voice, his absent father had been named "Vernon" on his birth certificate, and while Orion looked nothing like Elvis, he ''was' the spitting image of Vernon Presley.

Slowly became a DiscreditedTrope as the years passed into what would have been Elvis's old age, though it would persist by applying itself to more recent cases of celebrities who died in an infamously abrupt manner, including Music/TupacShakur (compounded by the huge amount of recorded material he left, enough to fill quite a few posthumous albums), Music/MichaelJackson and Music/DavidBowie.

* Music/KateBush's "King of the Mountain" thematized the rumors around Elvis being alive, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8xk_AkeP5c music video]] has headlines like "Sightings of Elvis in Yeti Colony" on {{Spinning Paper}}s.

-->'''Sammy J''': Now if Elvis was alive today.\\

* In an episode of the short-lived Canadian TV series ''TakingTheFalls'', it turns out that Elvis is still alive, and hiding out at an Elvis impersonator convention.

* In ''Comeback Tour'', a novel set in Games Workshop's Literature/DarkFuture setting, Elvis is a Sanctioned Operative - a private law-enforcement officer - working in the backwater areas of the DeepSouth. At the climax of the novel, he ends up [[spoiler:[[ThePowerOfRock using his music to defeat]] the machinations of a ReligionOfEvil.]]

* Robert Rankin's ''Armageddon Trilogy'' has Elvis alive and bonded to Barry The Time Sprout, granting him greatly extended lifespan and the ability to travel through time. He maintains several PaperThinDisguise identities such as Mr. T. H. E. King and Noah Never.

* The 1996 book ''The Redneck Instruction Book'' by S. C. Rawls, a handbook on eating, dressing and behaving like a redneck, references this in one entry: "A redneck... isn't sure Elvis is really dead."