Who is Danny Keough? What we know about Riley Keough’s father amid late mom’s memoir’ 

Riley Keough with her father, Danny Keough (Image via Instagram/@rileykeough)
Riley Keough with her father, Danny Keough (Image via Instagram/@rileykeough)

Danny Keough, a musician and the former husband of Lisa Marie Presley, has kept things on the down low despite his association with the celebrity. However, as his daughter, Elvis Presley's granddaughter, Riley Keough, prepares to debut her mother's memoir, From Here To The Great Unknown, attention shifts to him once again.

Danny Keough and Lisa Marie Presley met in 1985. They dated for a while before getting hitched in 1988. They share two children, Riley and Benjamin. The two parted ways in 1994. However, they remained good friends until Lisa Marie's death in January 2023 due to cardiac arrest caused by a small bowel obstruction.


Here's what we know about Danny Keough, Elvis Presley's son-in-law

According to Biographies.com, the Chicago-born musician was born to parents Francis and Janet Keough, and he has a younger brother, Tom. Growing up, he was ardently involved in the Church of Scientology. He even graduated from the Delphian School, a private Scientology academy his mother founded with his stepfather in the 1970s.

Danny Keough married Lisa, whom he met after moving to LA in 1984, at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in the same state on October 3, 1988. Lisa was 20, while Danny was 24 at the time. According to Biography, Keough had a stint at Mad Hatter Studios in Los Angeles to earn for his family.

Touching on their marriage, Lisa's mother said in a statement back then:

"I am thrilled for Lisa Marie. Danny is a great guy, and I couldn’t be happier for the two of them."

The two had their first child, daughter Danielle Riley Keough, on May 29, 1989. They had a son, Benjamin Storm Presley Keough, three years later, on October 21, 1992. However, two years later, in May 1994, they parted ways. They obtained a quickie divorce in the Dominican Republic. In speaking of their time together, Lisa told Marie Claire in 2007,

"I had been really sheltered. I got married the first time very, very young. "And the marriage I was in, there was so much resentment about who I was, because I had more than he did, and it became a power struggle. It is hard for a man to be with a woman who is stronger, wealthier. So, in my mind, I’m thinking, ‘I know, I’ll get with someone more compatible.’”

However, as multiple outlets report, the two remained close friends. They co-parented their kids, and Danny played bass for Lisa Marie’s band at one point. Before her death, Presley and Keough were living together, along with the former's twin daughters, Harper and Finley, from another marriage.

Through the years, Keough has remained close to his only living child, Riley, as Benjamin died by s*icide on July 12, 2020. Riley has been known to share tidbits of their lives on Instagram. The two even shared an on-screen moment when Riley signed on to work on The Lodge (2019), and Danny joined in a supporting role.

Lisa Marie told People Magazine in 2005:

"Ultimately this is a good message to send out to people: You don't have to put your crap on your kids even if you are not together. You can still be civilized. I knew at the age that I had the kids with him that Danny was someone I could be connected with for the rest of my life. I knew he would be a good father."

Per the New York Post, Danny Keough was the one to call 911 when Lisa went into cardiac arrest earlier this year. He also attempted CPR on her to revive her, to no avail. Since then, he was spotted for the first time this year in May, enjoying and bonding over some drinks at a market in Calabasas.


According to IMDb, Danny Keough is also an actor, known for his work on Cabin by the Lake (2000), and The Darkling (2000). He was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 6, 1964. Not much else is known about the 6' 1" musician.

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Edited by pshmueni