Elvis Presley turned down John Wayne's offer to co-star in Oscar-winning Western

Elvis Presley not only soared to fame as a crooner in 1956, but his savvy manager Colonel Tom Parker also envisioned him as a silver screen icon . The same year, Elvis made his movie debut with the Western 'Love Me Tender', kicking off his film career which featured more cowboy flicks like 'Flaming Star', 'Frankie and Johnny', and 'Charro'. These roles caught the attention of Western movie titan John Wayne.

By that time, John Wayne had solidified his status as America's cowboy hero, beginning with 1930's 'The Big Trail' and later starring in legendary films by John Ford such as 'The Searchers'. In 1969, at age 62, John Wayne conquered the box office once more with the film adaptation of Charles Portis' novel 'True Grit'. He portrayed Rooster Cogburn, a grizzled, one-eyed U.

S. Marshal who teams up with a teenager and a Texan Ranger named LaBoeufan intriguing role initially pegged for Elvis, reports the Express . But by the late '60s, exhausted from churning out underwhelming musical rom-coms, The King realigned his ambition, electrifying audiences with the 1968 Comeback Special followed by Vegas shows.

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Billy Smith, Elvis' cousin, reminisced on the Memphis Mafia Kid YouTube channel hosted by his son, Danny, about the multiple movie offers from John Wayne to Elvis, "In fact, he asked him a couple of times."

Yet Elvis never accepted. Why indeed did Elvis pass on the chance to co-star with John Wayne?

Elvis' manager, The Colonel, pushed the envelope too far by insisting that Elvis should get top billing over Wayne for the role of the Texan in True Grit. Billy revealed: "Of course, it was always carried through Colonel and at that time when he was asking, Elvis was such a big star. Colonel didn't want him to play second co-star or second star...with anybody else, so that ruled that out."

Despite Elvis being their first pick for LaBoeuf in True Grit, the producers turned him down because Wayne was already a massive star. Instead, they cast musician Glen Campbell as the Texas Ranger, leading to a Golden Globe nomination for him.

To top it off, Wayne snagged both a Golden Globe and his sole Oscar for Best Actor as Rooster Cogburn. In his Oscar acceptance speech, the Western icon exclaimed: "Wow! If I'd known that, I'd have put that [eye] patch on 35 years earlier."

Campbell, who passed away seven years ago today, also performed the title song for True Grit, which likely would've been Elvis' gig had he starred in the film. The song, crafted by Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, was up for Golden Globe and Oscars nods for Best Song.

Regrettably, a demand for top billing cost Elvis Presley an amazing acting opportunity in 1976, just a year before his untimely death at 42. The King was approached by Barbra Streisand to star opposite her in A Star Is Born, but after negotiations with his manager, The Colonel, fell through, Kris Kristofferson was cast instead.