Jean Parker
Jean Parker | |
---|---|
![]() 1934 | |
Born | Lois Mae Green August 11, 1915 Deer Lodge, Montana, U.S. |
Died | November 30, 2005 | (aged 90)
Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) |
Years active | 1932–1966 |
Spouse(s) | Robert Lowery (1951–71; his death); 1 child Curtis Grotter (1944–49; divorced) Douglas Dawson (1941–43; divorced) George MacDonald (1936–40; divorced) |
Jean Parker (born Lois Mae Green, August 11, 1915 – November 30, 2005) was an American film and stage actress. She landed her first screen test while still in high school. She acted opposite such well-known actors as Katharine Hepburn, Robert Donat, Edward G. Robinson, Randolph Scott and Laurel and Hardy. She was married four times and had one son, Robert Lowery Hanks.
Career
Born in Deer Lodge, Montana as Lois Mae Green, both her father, Lewis, who was variously a gunsmith, a hunter and a chef, and her mother, Pearl, one of 18 children of a pioneer family, were unemployed during the depression of the 1930s.[1] She appeared in 70 movies from 1932 through 1966. In 1932, she posed as a flower girl and living poster in a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade, where she was seen by Ida Koverman, secretary to MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer. The following day the studio called her on the phone and invited her for a screen test.[2]
She attended Pasadena schools and graduated from John Muir High School. Her original aspirations were in the fine arts and illustration.[citation needed]
She had a successful career at MGM, RKO and Columbia including roles in such films as Little Women, Lady for a Day, Gabriel Over the White House, Limehouse Blues, The Ghost Goes West, and Rasputin and the Empress. In 1939, she starred opposite Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in RKO's The Flying Deuces. Parker auditioned unsuccessfully for the role of Melanie in Gone with the Wind. On November 9, 1939 she opened the Downtown Theatre in Oakland, California, and in December 1941, at the Orinda Theater in Contra Costa County.[2]
Parker remained active in film throughout the 1940s, playing opposite Lon Chaney in Dead Man's Eyes, and a variety of other films. Parker managed her own airport and flying service with then-husband Doug Dawson in Palm Springs, California until shortly after the start of World War II. During the war, she toured many of the veteran hospitals throughout the U.S. and performed on radio. In the 1950s, Parker co-starred opposite Edward G. Robinson in Black Tuesday; had a small but effective role in The Gunfighter, and appeared in A Lawless Street (1955). Her last film appearance was Apache Uprising (1966).[citation needed]
Parker also appeared on Broadway. In 1949, she replaced Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday on Broadway and enjoyed a successful run in this classic. She appeared on Broadway opposite Bert Lahr in the play Burlesque. She did summer stock in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, toured in the play Candlelight and Loco, and performed on stage in other professional productions.[citation needed] In 1954, Parker played the role of Cattle Kate Watson of Wyoming in an episode of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century, the first western program to win an Emmy Award. The series starred and was narrated by Jim Davis.[3] Later in her career and life, Parker continued a successful stint on the West Coast theatre circuit and worked as an acting coach.[2]
Personal life
Utilizing her artistic talents, Parker contracted in June 1935 to make eight original sketches a month for a Beverly Hills shop.[2] In December 1935, Parker became engaged to New York socialite newspaperman George E. McDonald, and eloped with him to Las Vegas on March 21, 1936. McDonald continued his business affairs on the East Coast, and after less than four years of marriage, Parker was granted an interlocutory decree of divorce on January 23, 1940. On February 14, 1941, Parker married Los Angeles radio commentator Henry Dawson Sanders, known professionally as Doug Dawson. The couple operated a flying service from Palm Springs Airport in California, which was shuttered at the outbreak of World War II.
In July 1942, her husband joined the Coast Guard, and in September 1942 they separated and were divorced in July 1943. A month after she was granted her final divorce decree on July 29, 1944, Parker married Dr. Kurt "Curtis" Arthur Grotter, a Hollywood insurance broker and former correspondent for a group of Czechoslovakian newspapers and active with the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, as he had a substantial loss of vision. They were separated on June 19, 1949, and divorced on December 29, 1949. On May 19, 1951, she secretly married actor Robert Lowery (born Robert Hanks), at the home of a friend in Hialeah, Florida. Lowery had played Batman in 1949; he was featured in over seventy films in his own career. By this marriage, Parker bore her only child, Robert Lowery Hanks.
While appearing at a nightclub in Sydney, Australia[4] in 1951, Parker made international headlines when she was escorted off Bondi Beach by swimsuit inspector Abe Laidlaw, who measured her bikini and determined it was too skimpy.[2][5]
In 1952, Parker gave birth to a son, Robert Lowery Hanks, who works as an executive for the city of Los Angeles. She and Lowery filed for divorce in September 1957, but it was never finalized.[2]
Death
At age 83, Parker moved into the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, where she died of a stroke on November 30, 2005, at the age of 90. She was survived by her son, Robert, and granddaughters Katie and Nora Hanks. She was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.[6]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1932 | Rasputin and the Empress | Princess Maria | Uncredited |
1932 | Divorce in the Family | Lucile | |
1933 | Gabriel Over the White House | Alice Bronson | |
1933 | The Secret of Madame Blanche | Eloise | |
1933 | Made on Broadway | Adele | |
1933 | What Price Innocence? | Ruth Harper | |
1933 | Storm at Daybreak | Danitza | |
1933 | Lady for a Day | Louise | |
1933 | Little Women | Beth March | |
1934 | Two Alone | Mazy | |
1934 | You Can't Buy Everything | Elizabeth 'Beth' Burton Bell | |
1934 | Lazy River | Sarah Lescalle | |
1934 | Operator 13 | Eleanor Shackleford | |
1934 | Have a Heart | Sally Moore | |
1934 | Caravan | Timka | |
1934 | A Wicked Woman | Rosanne | |
1934 | Limehouse Blues | Toni | |
1934 | Sequoia | Toni Martin | |
1935 | Princess O'Hara | Princess O'Hara | |
1935 | Murder in the Fleet | Betty Lansing | |
1935 | The Ghost Goes West | Peggy Martin | |
1935 | The Texas Rangers | Amanda Bailey | |
1936 | The Farmer in the Dell | Adie Boye | |
1937 | Life Begins with Love | Carole Martin | |
1937 | The Barrier | Necia Gale | |
1938 | Penitentiary | Elizabeth Mathews | |
1938 | Romance of the Limberlost | Laurie | |
1938 | The Arkansas Traveler | Judy Allen | |
1939 | Romance of the Redwoods | June Martin | |
1939 | Zenobia | Mary Tibbett | |
1939 | She Married a Cop | Linda Fay | |
1939 | Flight at Midnight | Maxine Scott | |
1939 | The Flying Deuces | Georgette | |
1939 | Parents on Trial | Susan Wesley | |
1940 | Knights of the Range | Holly Ripple | |
1940 | Son of the Navy | Stevie Moore | |
1940 | Beyond Tomorrow | Jean Lawrence | |
1940 | Young America Files | Jane | Short film |
1941 | Roar of the Press | Alice Williams | |
1941 | Power Dive | Carol Blake | |
1941 | The Pittsburgh Kid | Patricia Mallory | |
1941 | Flying Blind | Shirley Brooks | |
1941 | No Hands on the Clock | Louise Campbell | |
1942 | Torpedo Boat | Grace Holman | |
1942 | I Live on Danger | Susan Richards | |
1942 | The Girl from Alaska | Mary 'Pete' McCoy | |
1942 | Hello, Annapolis | Doris Henley | |
1942 | Tomorrow We Live | Julie Bronson | |
1942 | Hi, Neighbor | Dorothy Greenfield | |
1942 | Wrecking Crew | Peggy Starr | |
1942 | The Traitor Within | Molly Betts | |
1943 | High Explosive | Connie Baker | |
1943 | Alaska Highway | Ann Coswell | |
1943 | Minesweeper | Mary Smith | |
1943 | The Deerslayer | Judith Hutter | |
1944 | The Navy Way | Ellen Sayre | |
1944 | Lady in the Death House | Mary Kirk Logan | |
1944 | Detective Kitty O'Day | Kitty O'Day | |
1944 | Oh, What a Night | Valerie | |
1944 | Dead Man's Eyes | Heather Hayden | |
1944 | Bluebeard | Lucille Lutien | |
1944 | One Body Too Many | Carol Dunlap | |
1945 | Adventures of Kitty O'Day | Kitty O'Day | |
1946 | Rolling Home | Frances Crawford | |
1950 | The Gunfighter | Molly | |
1952 | Toughest Man in Arizona | Della | |
1953 | Those Redheads From Seattle | Liz | |
1954 | Black Tuesday | Hattie Combest | |
1955 | A Lawless Street | Cora Dean | |
1957 | The Parson and the Outlaw | Mrs. Sarah Jones | |
1965 | Apache Uprising | Mrs. Hawks |
References
- ^ Obituary, theguardian.com, December 13, 2005; accessed July 3, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f "Jean Parker profile". Retrieved April 12, 2012.
- ^ McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television. New York: Penguin. p. 793. ISBN 978-0-14-024916-3.
- ^ "Actress Sent off Bondi Beach". The Age. November 3, 1951. p. 3. Retrieved April 12, 2012.
- ^ Marks, Kathy (December 31, 2008). "Topless wars reignited on Australia's beaches". The Independent. London, UK. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
- ^ Jean Parker at Find a Grave
External links
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