Shonka Dukureh, who played rhythm and blues singer Big Mama Thornton in Baz Luhrmann's recent Elvis biopic, has been found dead in a bedroom at her home in Nashville.

Police said there were no signs of foul play. Autopsy results on the 44-year-old's body are pending.

Dukureh was a singer, actor and former teacher. Police said she shared the apartment with her two young children.

One of the children found her unresponsive and went to the apartment of a neighbour, who called 911.

Dukureh, who also shared the stage at Coachella this year with rapper and singer Doja Cat, had a theatre degree and an education degree, Nashville radio station WPLN-FM reported.

In an interview with the station last month, she recalled the moment she heard she got the part in Elvis and was being flown to Australia for the shoot.

"I thought it was the best Christmas present I had ever received," she said.

"I knew to really pay tribute to her, I had to tap into myself, my own self-confidence, my own voice.

"I was just so honoured." 

In 1952, Big Mama Thornton became the first singer to record Hound Dog, four years before Elvis. 

Her recording, released in February 1953, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013 and is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 songs that shaped Rock and Roll". 

Elvis's version became his best-selling song, one of the best-selling singles of all time with 10 million copies sold globally, and was simultaneously number one on the US pop, country and R&B charts.

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AP/ABC