TLDR: Benjamin Keough, Lisa Marie Presley’s son and Elvis’s only grandson, died by suicide on July 12, 2020 at age 27. He struggled with depression and addiction while dealing with the pressure of looking exactly like Elvis.
His death devastated his family, particularly his mother Lisa Marie, who kept his body at home for two months before burying him at Graceland. Family members believe Lisa Marie died of a broken heart less than three years later.
Benjamin Keough’s death on July 12, 2020 shocked the world and devastated the Presley family in ways they never fully recovered from. He was only 27 years old, the same age his grandfather Elvis Presley was when he became famous.
But Benjamin’s story isn’t just about how he died. It’s about the crushing weight of being Elvis’s only grandson, looking exactly like the King of Rock and Roll, and struggling to find your own identity when the world only sees you as someone else’s ghost.
Here’s what happened to Benjamin Keough and how his death changed his family forever.
He Looked Exactly Like Elvis
From the moment Benjamin Storm Keough was born on October 21, 1992, people couldn’t stop talking about how much he looked like his grandfather. It wasn’t just a family resemblance. It was like looking at a young Elvis brought back to life.
He had the same piercing blue eyes, the same pout, the same face structure. His mother Lisa Marie said in a 2012 interview that the resemblance was “uncanny” and that she was sometimes “overwhelmed” when looking at him because he reminded her so much of her late father.
People would stop him in public, grab him for photos, treat him like a living memorial instead of his own person. He couldn’t go to the Grand Ole Opry or other public venues without being swarmed by fans who wanted to touch a piece of Elvis through him.
In her posthumous memoir “From Here to the Great Unknown,” Lisa Marie admitted that Benjamin was “so much like his grandfather on so many levels that he actually scared me.”
She worried the resemblance went beyond physical traits into something darker, like the family’s struggles with addiction and early death were encoded in his DNA.
The Pressure to Be a Musician Nearly Broke Him
Everyone expected Benjamin to become a musician. How could he not, with that face and that bloodline?
In 2009, when he was just 17, reports exploded globally that he’d signed a massive $5 million record deal with Universal Music to produce up to five albums. The story went everywhere. The heir to Elvis’s throne was finally stepping up.
Except Universal Music executives later denied the deal ever existed, calling the story “totally untrue.” Whether the deal was real and fell apart or was media hype from the start, the result was the same: massive public expectation followed by crushing silence.
Benjamin did record music in studios. But none of it was ever officially released during his lifetime.
That music still sits in a vault somewhere, a reminder of potential that was either unrealized or deliberately hidden to protect him from inevitable comparisons to the most famous musician in history.
His friend Brandon Howard later said the pressure to “live up to a name and an image” created unbearable weight. Benjamin was “pressured into having to be a musician, having to be an actor” just because of who his grandfather was, not because it’s what he actually wanted.
Meanwhile, his older sister Riley successfully built her own career as an acclaimed actress. Benjamin struggled to find similar footing. His IMDb page lists only one acting credit. Without a professional identity separate from Elvis, he felt lost.
He Battled Addiction and Depression for Years
The Presley family has what some call a “curse,” but it’s really just severe, multi-generational addiction and mental health struggles. Elvis died at 42 from prescription drug abuse. Lisa Marie battled opioid addiction for over a decade.
Benjamin inherited that vulnerability. He had a “long history of addictions” and struggled with drugs and alcohol for years. His autopsy later revealed cocaine and alcohol in his system when he died, along with evidence of previous suicide attempts.
Riley described her brother as an “incredibly sensitive person” who used substances to cope with “his own discomfort and emotional pain.” The addiction grew in private alongside his depression.
Getting help was complicated by his status. Going to rehab meant risking media exposure, so he struggled largely in isolation. The COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 made things worse. The lockdowns and isolation likely intensified his mental health crisis.
Lisa Marie later wrote that she and Benjamin shared a “deep soul bond” similar to what Elvis had with his own mother Gladys. She feared he “didn’t stand a chance” against the combined weight of his genetics and family history. That fatalism, the feeling his tragic path was pre-written, likely haunted Benjamin.
What Happened the Night He Died
On the night of July 12, 2020, Benjamin was at the family’s mansion in Calabasas, California. His girlfriend of several years, Diana Pinto, was there with him. There had been some kind of gathering or party earlier in the evening.
Around 3:30 AM, neighbors heard screaming coming from the property. Diana was reportedly heard shouting “Don’t do it” in the frantic moments before a gunshot rang out.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled Benjamin’s death a suicide. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 27 years old.
When police arrived around 6 AM, Diana was hysterical. Witnesses heard her saying “The family’s going to hate me” and “They’re going to blame me,” showing the immediate crushing guilt that survivors of suicide often carry.
A few days later, Diana posted a tribute on social media calling Benjamin “the love of my life” and “my favorite person.” She described him as “wise like a thousand-year-old man, but silly as a 5-year-old.”
She shared details of a picnic tribute she held for him with his favorite things: Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies, croissants, muffins, and kombucha.
Those small, specific details of what a 27-year-old liked to eat made the tragedy feel even more real and heartbreaking.
Lisa Marie Kept His Body for Two Months
Lisa Marie’s grief was unlike anything most people can imagine. She’d always referred to Benjamin as “the love of her life” and “my beautiful, beautiful angel.” Their bond went beyond typical mother-son relationships.
In one of the most heartbreaking details from her posthumous memoir, Lisa Marie kept Benjamin’s body in her home for two months after his death. She used a separate bedroom in her Los Angeles house and kept the room cooled with dry ice to preserve him.
California law allowed her to retain custody of the body with proper preservation techniques. She visited him frequently, sat with him, talked to him. She couldn’t let go.
Riley later explained this wasn’t the act of someone losing their mind, but a mother processing an impossible loss in her own way. Having him there gave Lisa Marie strange comfort. It let her parent him for just a little longer before she had to release him to the cold ground.
During those two months, Lisa Marie decided to get a tattoo matching one Benjamin had on his hand, a Celtic eternity knot representing eternal love.
When the tattoo artist asked for a photo to replicate it, Lisa Marie said “No, but I can show you,” and took the artist to where Benjamin’s body lay so they could see the tattoo directly on his hand.
It was a ritual of permanent bonding, etching his memory into her skin while his physical form was still present.
He Was Buried at Graceland
In October 2020, Benjamin was finally laid to rest in the Meditation Garden at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. It was the first burial there in 40 years, since Elvis’s grandmother Minnie Mae in 1980.
Benjamin was buried alongside his grandfather Elvis, his great-grandmother Gladys, and other Presley family members. The grandson who looked so much like the King was returned to his side, closing the circle.
Riley placed a pair of yellow Nikes that Benjamin loved in his casket, a personal touch amidst the grandeur. An eternal flame burns at his grave, and visitors to Graceland who come to see Elvis now also pause to remember the grandson who never got to live out his own story.
His Death Led to Lisa Marie’s Death
On January 12, 2023, less than three years after Benjamin’s death, Lisa Marie died suddenly from cardiac arrest at age 54. Officially, she died from complications of a small bowel obstruction related to bariatric surgery.
But Riley and Priscilla both say the real cause was a broken heart. “My mom physically died from the after effects of her surgery, but we all knew she died of a broken heart,” Riley said.
Priscilla echoed this, saying that after Benjamin died, Lisa Marie “didn’t want to be here anymore.”
Riley confirmed that her mother relapsed into opioid addiction after Benjamin’s death. Lisa Marie had fought so hard to stay sober, but the grief was too much. The pain eventually drove her back to the drugs that had plagued the family for generations.
In August 2022, Lisa Marie wrote a devastating essay about grief for People magazine. She described the death of her son as the destruction of her universe. “The death of my beautiful, beautiful son? The sweetest and most incredible being that I have ever had the privilege of knowing… destroyed and shattered my heart and my soul into almost nothing.”
She admitted to “beating herself up tirelessly” every single day with guilt. That essay was a warning about how grief doesn’t stop or fade. Six months later, she was gone too, buried next to Benjamin at Graceland.
The Impact on the Whole Family
Benjamin’s death didn’t just destroy Lisa Marie. It sent shockwaves through the entire extended family.
Riley Keough, his “twin soul” and best friend, took on the monumental task of finishing their mother’s memoir after Lisa Marie died. She had to listen to tapes of her mother describing finding Benjamin and the months of grief that followed.
She became the voice for both her deceased brother and mother.
Even Navarone Garibaldi, Lisa Marie’s half-brother, struggled deeply after Benjamin’s death and fell into fentanyl addiction. He approached Priscilla two weeks after the burial asking for help to detox because he didn’t want to hurt her anymore.
Benjamin’s suicide acted like a bomb that kept exploding, threatening to pull more family members into addiction and despair.
His Legacy
With Benjamin’s death, the direct male line of Elvis Presley ended. While Elvis has three granddaughters (Riley, Harper, and Finley), the male lineage stopped with Benjamin. It’s the twilight of the Elvis era in a biological sense.
Benjamin’s story is a tragic reminder that legacy can be a crushing burden, that wealth and fame don’t protect you from mental illness, and that sometimes looking exactly like a legend means you never get to be yourself.
He was the “quiet storm” behind the stage, the introverted observer in a family of performers. He couldn’t escape being “Elvis’s grandson” long enough to figure out who Benjamin actually was.
Riley now carries his memory forward, along with their mother’s. The memoir she finished tells both their stories, laying bare the reality of the “Presley curse” as a cycle of addiction, untreated mental health issues, and impossible expectations.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, please reach out for help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 988, or you can text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line.
