Doctor George Nichopoulos: Elvis Presley's personal physician who was accused of killing the singer

"Dr Nick" was vilified by many, while others praised him as a sane voice who attempted to steer Elvis away from his sundry bad habits

Nichopoulos in 1993 at one of the hearings that led to his being disbarred (PA)

Among Elvis Presley fans there is little middle ground concerning George Nichopoulos – "Dr Nick" – who prescribed thousands of doses of various drugs for Presley during the singer's final years, but was acquitted of being criminally responsible for his death in 1977. He was vilified by many, while others praised him as a sane voice who attempted to steer Elvis away from his sundry bad habits.

"The King" was 42 when he was found on the floor of a bathroom at Graceland; Nichopoulos signed the death certificate. Traces of more than a dozen drugs were found in Presley's body, including barbiturates. The pathologist who conducted the autopsy thought the combination was lethal. But the medical examiner determined that the drugs were not in concentrations high enough to kill. He ruled that Presley died of cardiac arrhythmia caused by heart disease and hypertension, though doubts about the case began to swirl at once. "No one understands that Elvis was so complicated," Nichopoulos said in 2009. "I worked so hard just to keep things together and then they turned the tables and decided I was to blame."

In 1980 he was charged with prescribing excessive amounts of drugs to Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and other patients. Prosecutors showed that in the final seven months of Presley's life he prescribed more than 10,000 pills, including sedatives, amphetamines and narcotics. Nichopoulos also admitted that he had borrowed nearly $300,000 from Presley, but denied that the loans affected his judgement.

On tour, Nichopoulos took along three locked suitcases filled with drugs. He explained that he was the "team physician" for nearly 150 people on Presley's payroll and that the drugs were not exclusively for the singer. Once, when Nichopoulos refused to give him drugs, Presley shot him, wounding him slightly.

Nichopoulos was acquitted and returned to his medical practice in Memphis, noting, "My patients, the ones I didn't kill, were very faithful." But the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners later charged him with prescribing too many drugs to those patients and revoked his medical licence in 1995. "They just never stopped going after me," said. "They always wanted a scapegoat for Elvis's death."

He was briefly a road manager for Jerry Lee Lewis, and later worked in the disability benefits office of Federal Express into his 80s. He later helped organise an exhibit of his Elvis memorabilia, including his medical bag, examination instruments, pill bottles and guns, but the venture ended in a welter of legal wrangling. "I worked very hard trying to do all the right things with Elvis," he said in 2009. "I don't regret any of the medications I gave him. They were necessities."

George Constantine Nichopoulos, physician: born Ridgway, Pennsylvania 29 October 1927; married Edna Sanidas (three children); died Memphis 24 February 2016.

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