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By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Jul 12, 2020
Lisa Marie Presley's son — and Elvis' grandson — has tragically died by suicide at the age of 27.
Benjamin Keough was an aspiring actor and musician and known for his uncanny resemblance to Elvis himself.
Lisa Marie Presley — the only child of the late Elvis Presley and his ex-wife, Priscilla Presley — recently shared a family photo featuring her four children…including her oldest son, Benjamin Keough, who instantly went viral when Lisa Marie posted the picture.
The reason?
He allegedly looked like the spitting image of his hip-swiveling, legendary grandfather!
Who was Benjamin Keough?
Keough died by suicide at the age of 27.
On July 12, 2020, reports surfaced that the aspiring musician died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to Us Weekly, authorities found Keough during a "rescue response" call where they found him suffering from one gunshot wound to the upper torso." The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said in a press release that Keough was pronounced dead at the scene and an investigation is ongoing.
"She is entirely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated but trying to stay strong for her 11-year-old twins and her oldest daughter Riley," Lisa Marie Presley's rep told Us Weekly. "She adored that boy. He was the love of her life.”
He didn’t have the greatest of upbringings with his father.
According to The Guardian, actress and model Riley Keough — who is Benjamin’s older sister — admitted that they didn’t have the best of upbringings with their father, Danny Keough, who is Lisa Marie Presley’s first husband.
“[We] grew up very privileged with my mother, but my dad didn’t live like that. And I think experiencing both sides has been helpful. My father had mattresses on the floor of his apartments. He lived in cabins and trailer parks. He just didn’t have much money,” she said, according to the outlet.
Do you think Elvis and his grandson look alike?
Benjamin Keough was a musician.
According to the official Elvis Presley fan website, Benjamin Keough inherited the family love of music (a love that his father has, as well), and can be seen performing his mother’s 2012 hit, “Storm & Grace."
And we have to say that he was quite good at it, and not just because he was Elvis’s grandson! Back in 2009, he’d had a deal with Universal Records, as well, but nothing seems to have come of it.
Lisa Marie Presley is still close with Benjamin’s father.
Some people go through a divorce and it’s messy and heartbreaking. Others, like Lisa Marie Presley, go out of their way to make sure that everyone’s happy and healthy.
And, according to Heavy, even though Lisa Marie Presley and Danny Keough are no longer together, they still maintain a close relationship. In fact, they’re so close that he currently lives in a guesthouse on Lisa’s property!
“Danny is my best friend, always has been, always will be. I love him unconditionally, but we are not together. It’s not like that,” she said, according to the outlet.
Just 20 days after Lisa Marie Presley’s divorce from Benjamin Keough’s father was finalized, she married Michael Jackson.
According to Pop Culture, it’s not Lisa Marie Presley’s first marriage that’s headline-worthy (although, certainly, it produced two clearly wonderful kids). Rather, it’s the fact that just 20 days after she’d divorced Danny Keough, she married Michael Jackson.
Presley and her children were living together at Neverland Ranch for two years, until her marriage to Jackson fell apart, as well. After she’d divorced Jackson, Benjamin Keough and his sister, Riley, split their time between their mother and their father.
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Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series.