Dolly Parton, a titan of the entertainment industry whose achievements spanned the worlds of music, film, books, television, and theater, died peacefully on Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 80.
Parton was best known as a country and western singer-songwriter, but she appeared in several iconic films including “9 to 5,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” and “Steel Magnolias.” She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and won a Grammy for her performance of that film’s “I Will Always Love You,” a song Parton had written in 1973, and one that would surge in popularity again with Whitney Houston’s cover in “The Bodyguard.”
Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in rural Tennessee, where she grew up as one of 12 children in a small one-bedroom home. She began singing on local radio and TV shows at the age of 10 and made her Grand Ole Opry debut at 13; a few years later, she moved to Nashville and met her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean.
In 1965, Parton signed her first record deal and made the country charts with two singles from her debut album, “Hello, I’m Dolly.” That album’s popularity earned Parton an invitation to join “The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967,” and between 1967 and 1974, “Porter & Dolly” would become one of country music’s leading duos.
Parton scored her first #1 single in 1971 with “Joshua” and continued to chart throughout the 1970s with songs like “Coat of Many Colors,” “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” and “Jolene.” After seven years on “The Porter Wagoner Show,” Parton left the show in 1974, a decision that caused friction between her and Wagoner and inspired “I Will Always Love You,” a song that reached number one on the country charts twice (in 1974 and 1982) before its later success with Whitney Houston’s rendition.
Between 1974 and 1979, Parton ascended to superstardom, and in 1980 she became a movie star as well with “9 to 5,” a smart and hilarious workplace comedy that cast Parton alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin and gave her another number-one hit with the film’s title song. In 1982, Parton reunited with “9 to 5” director Colin Higgins for “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” a lively adaptation of the stage musical in which Parton and costar Burt Reynolds crackled with star power and chemistry.
Parton followed that film with “Rhinestone” (1984), a charming and severely underrated comedy that cast her opposite Sylvester Stallone, an unlikely but, when paired with Parton, winning romantic lead. In 1989, she appeared as part of the ensemble in the irresistible “Steel Magnolias,” a combination of broad comedy and relentless tearjerker that saw Parton hold her own in a cast that included Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, and Daryl Hannah.
Parton’s next movie, “Straight Talk” (1992), was one of her most charming, a comedy in which Parton played a small-town dance instructor who becomes a successful Chicago talk show host. Other Parton screen appearances include “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1993), “Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous” (2005), and a voice role in 2011’s “Gnomeo & Juliet.” In the 2010s, Parton starred in a string of successful TV movies, often playing herself.
Amidst all of this, Parton also produced TV variety specials through her production company Sandollar, opened a theme park called Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, in the 1980s, and continued to chart with songs like the Kenny Rogers duet “Islands in the Stream.” Her business endeavors extended to lines of baking goods, frozen foods, coffee, wines, fragrances, cosmetics, jewelry, clothing, dinner theaters, hotels, and more, and she was known for charitable enterprises like Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a program that donated over 300 million free books to children around the world.
Over the course of her career Parton earned 11 Grammy Awards and 54 nominations, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and she was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the years leading up to her death Parton wrote a series of bestselling books, had a late hit album with “Rockstar,” and saw her life story turned into a musical in 2025, with the book and music penned by Parton. “Dolly: A True Original Musical” will premiere on Broadway in December 2026.