Elvis Presley’s doctor, ‘Dr. Nick’ Nichopoulos, dies at 88

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A funeral home says Elvis Presley’s former personal doctor has died.

Memorial Park Funeral Home in Memphis said in an obituary posted on its website that 88-year-old George C. Nichopoulos died Wednesday.

Known as “Dr. Nick,” Nichopoulos was Presley’s doctor for 11 years before the singer’s death from heart disease on Aug. 16, 1977.

The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners later suspended and ultimately revoked his medical license after it ruled he had over-prescribed potentially addictive drugs to 13 patients, including Presley and fellow singer Jerry Lee Lewis.

A jury in 1981 acquitted Nichopoulos of criminal charges of indiscriminately and negligently prescribing drugs to Presley.

In a 2009 interview with The Commercial Appeal, Nichopoulos said, “I don’t regret any of the medications I gave him. They were necessities.”

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This story has been corrected to delete reference to prescriptions between 1987 and 1990 and to show that the board suspended and later revoked the doctor’s medical license after the board ruled he had over-prescribed potentially addictive drugs to 13 patients, including Presley and fellow singer Jerry Lee Lewis.