'She adored that boy. He was the love of her life': Lisa Marie Presley is left 'inconsolable' after her son - and Elvis Presley's look-alike grandson - Benjamin Keough, 27, 'shoots himself dead' in Calabasas mansion
* Keough was found Sunday morning in Calabasas, California, according to TMZ
* He was son of Lisa Marie and musician Danny Keough and the grandson of Elvis
* Lisa Marie has previously spoken of her son's 'uncanny' resemblance to Elvis
* Benjamin's grandmother Priscilla married Elvis in 1967; they divorced in 1973
'* She is completely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated', Lisa Marie's manager said, 'He was the love of
her life'
Lisa Marie Presley has been left 'inconsolable' after her eldest child - and lookalike of his grandfather Elvis - died in a suspected suicide.
Benjamin Keough, 27, was found by police with a single gunshot wound to the upper torso at around 6.30am on Sunday at his mother's Calabasas mansion in California. It is not clear whether Benjamin was alone at the house.
Lisa Marie's manager said: 'She is completely heartbroken, inconsolable and beyond devastated but trying to stay strong for her 11-year-old twins and her oldest daughter Riley. She adored that boy. He was the love of her life.'
Benjamin was the son of Lisa Marie - only child of superstar Elvis - and musician Danny Keough. Lisa Marie had previously spoken of Benjamin's similarity to Elvis, calling their resemblance 'uncanny'.
A source close to the family has claimed that Benjamin had been 'struggling' for a long time and the death, though shocking, won't have come as a 'huge surprise.'
Police with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said they responded to a 'rescue response' call early Sunday, adding: 'Upon their arrival, they located the victim suffering from one gunshot wound to the upper torso. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.'
An official could be seen outside the mansion Sunday while police and a coroner's vehicle were parked nearby.
A source told The Sun that Benjamin's family was told about his death early on Sunday morning.
'It is shocking news but it also isn't a huge surprise as he had been struggling. Everyone is heartbroken and devastated,' they said.
Nancy Sinatra tweeted: 'I have known you since before your mama gave birth to you, never dreaming you would have pain like this in your life. I'm so very sorry.'
And another friend of Benjamin's, musician DJ Ashba, wrote: 'This cuts me to the bone. Literally in shock. I loved Ben like a brother and always will. Till we meet again my friend.'
Roy Orbison Jr, whose father performed with Benjamin's grandfather, said: 'Everybody please pray for Elvis Presley's family. They have had another terrible tragedy today.'
Benjamin's mother was born in 1968, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie lost her father just nine years later to heart failure.
Indeed, it was Lisa Marie who discovered Elvis lying face down on the carpet next to the toilet in his bathroom. She called her father's ex-girlfriend, Linda Thompson, yelling down the line: 'My daddy's dead! He's smothered in the carpet!'
Lisa Marie described her tight relationship with her own children in an interview with Healthy Living magazine in 2014.
'We all stay together. We are all very close. Wherever I am, they have their rooms and live with me,' the mother said at the time.
'We all try to stay close as much as possible. Like, in the same room, preferably for me. I don't like it when they are far away in any way.
'I am very protective. I just smother them in love and I am also ferociously protective. They are my priority. That's what I do. That’s what I care most about. I keep them close to me and make sure they are happy and healthy.'
Lisa Marie married Benjamin's father, Danny Keough - her first of four husbands - in 1988.
The couple had two children together, Benjamin and his sister, the actress Riley Keough who is married to her Mad Max co-star Ben Smith-Petersen.
Benjamin has two younger sisters, Finley and Harper, from his mother's marriage to music producer Michael Lockwood.
He had largely kept himself out of the public spotlight, with private social media accounts, but in 2009 he was reported to have signed a $5million record deal with Universal.
'The music will be nothing like Elvis, nothing like him at all,' he had said in an interview at the time.
Aside from a few acting credits very little is known about Benjamin's career.
In 2015, he shared a picture of an Elvis outfit he had bought, writing on Instagram: 'I purchased a piece of grandad today from a collector. He wore it in 1974. I feel a lot closer to him now.'
Lisa Marie and Benjamin were said to be so close that, in 2009, the mother and son got matching tattoos. In 2012 she wrote song Storm And Grace about her son.
She once said of Benjamin: 'Ben does look so much like Elvis. He was at the Opry and was the quiet storm behind the stage.
'Everybody turned around and looked when he was over there. Everybody was grabbing him for a photo because it is just uncanny.'
Lisa Marie married Michael Jackson just 20 days after divorcing Benjamin and Riley's father in 1994. She had first met the King of Pop in 1975 when she was aged seven.
She and Jackson developed an 'adult friendship' in 1992 and were married in a secret ceremony in the Dominican Republic in May 1994.
Their marriage stunned the world and the pair were questioned over whether their union was a publicity stunt. In an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, Lisa Marie had said: 'Do we have sex? Yes! Yes! Yes!'
It was reported that Jackson became highly dependent on Lisa Marie as allegations of child molestation were made public.
She revealed she had wanted to 'save him' but later realised this was a 'delusion.'
The couple separated just four days after Jackson collapsed on stage in New York while rehearsing for a TV special and finalised an amicable divorce after 18 months of marriage.
Lisa Marie told Oprah years later: 'He had to make a decision. Was it the drugs and the vampires or me? And he pushed me away.'
In 2000, Lisa Marie got engaged to Hollywood legend Nicholas Cage - after breaking off a very brief engagement to singer-songwriter John Oszajca.
She and Cage married in 2002 but divorced just three months later.
Lisa Marie told Larry King Live a year later: 'We connected, we had a great connection. We were both a bit - we're sort of these gypsy spirited, you know, tyrannical pirates.
'And one pirate marries another they will sink the ship basically is what it comes down to.'
She added: 'It was kind of one of those things where you marry someone hoping that you're going to either stabilize it or it's going to, you know, accentuate all that was going on prior to what was problematic.'
In 2006 she married her musical director Michael Lockwood with whom she had twin daughters. Those children are now said to be the subject of a nasty custody battle following's the pair's divorce after a decade together.
In June last year the mother of four shared a sweet snap with all of her children, writing: 'Mama Lion with the cubs.'
Around the same time she opened up about her struggles with 'opioids and painkillers' in an essay penned for the forward of the book The United States of Opioids: A Prescription for Liberating a Nation in Pain by Harry Nelson.
She warned of the dangers of prescription drugs as she explained how easily her addiction began after being prescribed painkillers following the birth of her twin daughters in 2008.
Lisa Marie wrote: 'I'm not perfect. My father wasn't perfect, no one's perfect. It's what you do with it after you learn and then you try to help others with it.'
Community Forum
Topic: Elvis Presley's look-alike grandson - Benjamin Keough, 27, 'shoots himself dead (Read 611 times)
December 12, 2009, 05:36:22 pm