Elvis

Elvis Presley 's death 35 years ago today jolted the nation. The singer was just 42 when he was found by his manager in the bathroom of his already iconic mansion Graceland. He had been scheduled to start a nationwide tour. Join Times rock critic Randall Roberts and music writer Randy Lewis at 4 p.m. as they talk about why Elvis' persona continues to loom so large in pop culture. Like Marilyn Monroe , who died 50 years ago this month, Presley remains relevant. FRONT PAGE: L.A. Times coverage of Presley's death Why the fascination with a man The Times described the day after his death as "the one-time truck driver whose swivel-hipped singing style made him an entertainment legend"?

In recent years, The Times has been out front in its coverage of the deaths of iconic performers, including Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston . But perhaps no artist's death was as big a story as the death 35 years ago of Elvis Presley of a heart attack at Graceland, his mansion in Memphis, Tenn. "Elvis Presley didn't invent rock n' roll, but he was its most important figure and primary symbol," then-Times' critic Bob Hilburn wrote in an appreciation.

An hour's worth of film shot by a fan during Elvis Presley's 1972 performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City will be included in a new 40 th anniversary deluxe reissue of the live recording from that show. The package also includes two of Presley's complete performances among four he gave over the course of three days in June 1972. The film will get its world premiere Aug. 17 in Memphis, Tenn., a free event that's part of Elvis Week activities commemorating the 35 th anniversary of the singer's death in 1977.

Elvis is coming back from the dead, thanks to some digital wizardry. Digital Domain Media Group Inc., the Academy Award-winning studio that created visual effects for the "Transformers" films and "Tron: Legacy," has signed an agreement with Core Media Group to jointly develop and produce a series of "virtual" Elvis Presley likenesses for a range of entertainment projects, including appearances in shows and film and TV productions. With studios in Los Angeles; London; Vancouver, Canada; and other cities, Digital Domain created the computer-generated likeness of the late rap artist Tupac Shakur for Dr. Dre's recent show at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

This post has been corrected. Please see note at bottom for details. Just a few months after wowing Coachella Valley Music Festival audiences with a virtual Tupac Shakur, visual effects company Digital Domain Media Group has announced plans to bring Elvis Presley back to life virtually. Actually, make that Elvis Presleys -- plural. "We are looking to develop several versions of Elvis," said Ed Ulbrich, chief creative officer at Digital Domain, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

C.J. Wilsonand Yu Darvish, the key pieces in a rotation chess match between the Angels and Texas Rangers last winter, squared off for the second time this season Saturday night, and though both pitched well, neither figured much in the outcome. What left a bigger impression on a crowd of 44,227 in Angel Stadium were five errors - three by the Rangers - a bizarre play in which a shortstop failed to throw to first on a routine grounder, and a controversial play at the plate that led to a heated argument and ejection.

A version of Andy Warhol's "Double Elvis" that has ties to Los Angeles brought in $37 million at a  Sotheby's auction on Wednesday in New York. The silkscreen work, which depicts Presley in a cowboy pose, was offered for sale by an unidentified American collector, who acquired it in 1977, according to reports. The work is one of 22 images that Warhol created of the rock singer.  Several of the "Elvis" silkscreens reside in museums, including New York's Museum of Modern Art, and "Triple Elvis" is part of the Fisher collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The selling price was on the lower end of Sotheby's estimate of $30 million to $50 million.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a musical with less dramatic tension than "Million Dollar Quartet" anywhere this side of a "My Little Pony" touring show. The production that opened Tuesday at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts really just wants to let the good times roll, so you can be glad it devotes only about 10 minutes of its 105-minute running time to drumming up token conflicts between Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash and their visionary producer, Sam Phillips.

Trumpeter Wayne Jackson was the personification of mixed emotions in February when he and his longtime musical partner, saxophonist Andrew Love, were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award for their work over half a century together as the Memphis Horns. Jackson tearfully acknowledged the music industry accolade for the hundreds of recordings that he and Love made in Memphis and elsewhere. They had backed such R&B and soul music greats as Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Sam & Dave and Wilson Pickett, and rock, pop and country luminaries that included Elvis Presley, U2, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Robert Cray and James Taylor.