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Posted on Sat, Dec. 10, 2005
Actress Jean Parker dies at 90
BOB THOMAS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Jean Parker, the lovely brunette star of "Sequoia," "Little Women," "The Ghost Goes West" and other hit films of the 1930s and '40s, has died. She was 90.
Parker died Nov. 30 of complications from a stroke at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital, her son, Robert Hanks, told the Los Angeles Times on Friday. He said she had lived at the retirement home since 1998.
A petite beauty from Butte, Mont., the 5-foot-3-inch Parker had her acting career launched by a lucky chain of circumstances, at least according to Hollywood legend.
An aspiring artist, Parker had won a statewide prize for a poster depicting Father Time. Her poster, along with her photograph, appeared on a float in that year's New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, where Ida Koverman, secretary to MGM boss Louis B. Mayer, is said to have seen them and recommended her for a contract.
"My ambition was to be an artist. I had no thought of acting," Parker, who had moved from Montana to Pasadena at age 6 with her family, said later.
The actress, whose given name was Louise Stephanie Zelinska, made her debut in 1932 as the Duchess Maria in "Rasputin and the Empress," a film that starred three members of acting's Barrymore family, Ethel, Lionel and John.
She went on to play ingenues in such other MGM films as "The Secret of Madame Blanche" (with Irene Dunne), "Operator 13" (Marion Davies, Gary Cooper), and "Gabriel over the White House" with Walter Huston.
Her most prestigious films were made by other studios: Frank Capra's "Lady for a Day" in 1933, Rene Clair's "The Ghost Goes West" with Robert Donat in 1935, and notably "Little Women" as Beth in 1933, opposite Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett and Francis Dee as the other sisters in the heralded film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's literary classic.
Some critics considered "Sequoia" in 1934 Parker's finest accomplishment. As the solo star of that film, she played a girl living near a national park who raises an unlikely pair, an orphaned fawn and mountain lion who grow up as friends.
Other notable films included "Texas Rangers," a western with Fred MacMurray; "The Flying Deuces," a Laurel and Hardy comedy; "Bluebeard" with John Carradine; and "The Gunfighter" with Gregory Peck.
Her career waned in the 1950s as the roles became smaller and less frequent. In "Those Redheads from Seattle" in 1953, she played a bartender in a Klondike saloon. Her only 1960s film was "Apache Uprising," in which she had just one scene.
During the lulls in movie work, Parker appeared on the stage. She replaced Judy Holliday on Broadway in "Born Yesterday" and played in regional theater, often with her fourth husband, actor Robert Lowery. She and Lowery also formed a nightclub act and toured the United States and Australia.
She also coached young actors for a time in the 1970s, but eventually became known in Hollywood as a recluse. Her final years were spent at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in Los Angeles' Woodland Hills section.
All of her marriages ended in divorce. Her husbands were New York newsman George MacDonald, radio commentator Douglas Dawson, insurance broker Curtis Grotter and Lowery, most noted as the hero in the 1949 serial "Batman." He and Parker had a son, Robert Lowery Hanks, named for his father whose real last name was Hanks.
Actress Jean Parker dies at 90
BOB THOMAS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Jean Parker, the lovely brunette star of "Sequoia," "Little Women," "The Ghost Goes West" and other hit films of the 1930s and '40s, has died. She was 90.
Parker died Nov. 30 of complications from a stroke at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital, her son, Robert Hanks, told the Los Angeles Times on Friday. He said she had lived at the retirement home since 1998.
A petite beauty from Butte, Mont., the 5-foot-3-inch Parker had her acting career launched by a lucky chain of circumstances, at least according to Hollywood legend.
An aspiring artist, Parker had won a statewide prize for a poster depicting Father Time. Her poster, along with her photograph, appeared on a float in that year's New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, where Ida Koverman, secretary to MGM boss Louis B. Mayer, is said to have seen them and recommended her for a contract.
"My ambition was to be an artist. I had no thought of acting," Parker, who had moved from Montana to Pasadena at age 6 with her family, said later.
The actress, whose given name was Louise Stephanie Zelinska, made her debut in 1932 as the Duchess Maria in "Rasputin and the Empress," a film that starred three members of acting's Barrymore family, Ethel, Lionel and John.
She went on to play ingenues in such other MGM films as "The Secret of Madame Blanche" (with Irene Dunne), "Operator 13" (Marion Davies, Gary Cooper), and "Gabriel over the White House" with Walter Huston.
Her most prestigious films were made by other studios: Frank Capra's "Lady for a Day" in 1933, Rene Clair's "The Ghost Goes West" with Robert Donat in 1935, and notably "Little Women" as Beth in 1933, opposite Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett and Francis Dee as the other sisters in the heralded film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's literary classic.
Some critics considered "Sequoia" in 1934 Parker's finest accomplishment. As the solo star of that film, she played a girl living near a national park who raises an unlikely pair, an orphaned fawn and mountain lion who grow up as friends.
Other notable films included "Texas Rangers," a western with Fred MacMurray; "The Flying Deuces," a Laurel and Hardy comedy; "Bluebeard" with John Carradine; and "The Gunfighter" with Gregory Peck.
Her career waned in the 1950s as the roles became smaller and less frequent. In "Those Redheads from Seattle" in 1953, she played a bartender in a Klondike saloon. Her only 1960s film was "Apache Uprising," in which she had just one scene.
During the lulls in movie work, Parker appeared on the stage. She replaced Judy Holliday on Broadway in "Born Yesterday" and played in regional theater, often with her fourth husband, actor Robert Lowery. She and Lowery also formed a nightclub act and toured the United States and Australia.
She also coached young actors for a time in the 1970s, but eventually became known in Hollywood as a recluse. Her final years were spent at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in Los Angeles' Woodland Hills section.
All of her marriages ended in divorce. Her husbands were New York newsman George MacDonald, radio commentator Douglas Dawson, insurance broker Curtis Grotter and Lowery, most noted as the hero in the 1949 serial "Batman." He and Parker had a son, Robert Lowery Hanks, named for his father whose real last name was Hanks.
