Jean Parker

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Jean Parker
Parker in 1933
Born
Lois May Green

(1915-08-11)August 11, 1915[a]
Deer Lodge, Montana, U.S.
DiedNovember 30, 2005(2005-11-30) (aged 90)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Years active1932–1966
Spouses
George MacDonald
​
​
(m. 1936; div. 1940)​
Douglas Dawson
​
​
(m. 1941; div. 1943)​
Curtis Grotter
​
​
(m. 1944; div. 1948)​
​
(m. 1951)​
Children1

Jean Parker (born Lois May Green; August 11, 1915 – November 30, 2005)[a] was an American film and stage actress. A native of Montana, indigent during the Great Depression, she was adopted by a family in Pasadena, California, at age ten. She initially aspired to be an illustrator and artist, but was discovered at age 16 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executive Louis B. Mayer after a photograph of her was published in a Los Angeles newspaper when she won a poster contest.

She made her feature film debut in the

Elizabeth March in George Cukor's adaptation of Little Women opposite Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, and Frances Dee. Subsequent roles included lead parts in the drama Sequoia (1934), and in the British comedy-fantasy The Ghost Goes West
(1935).

Parker later starred in the

Burlesque (1946–1947) opposite Bert Lahr. In 1948, she replaced Judy Holliday for the national Broadway touring production of Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday, which earned her favorable reviews. The next year, she appeared opposite Gregory Peck
in a stage production of the comedy Light Up the Sky.

By the 1950s, Parker's film career had slowed, though she continued to appear in a small number of films, including supporting parts in the Westerns

Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital
in Los Angeles in 2005.

Biography

1915–1932: Early life

Parker was born on August 11, 1915, in Deer Lodge, Montana, to Lewis A. Green, a gunsmith, hunter, and chef from South Dakota,[1] and Melvina Burch (later known professionally as Mildred Brenner, who worked in the MGM set department), a native of Deer Lodge.[a][2][3] Many of the details surrounding Parker's birth have been reported with little consistency.[a] Secondary sources regarding her birth year range from 1912 to 1916, and some claim she was born in Butte, not Deer Lodge.[a] Furthermore, some sources state her birth name as Lois Mae (or May) Green, while others indicate she was born Luise Stephanie Zelinska.[a] Despite these discrepancies, Parker's son, Robert, insisted she was born Lois May Green in Deer Lodge in 1915,[11] which is consistent with contemporaneous Montana birth records from the United States Census Bureau.[12]

Parker's parents were unemployed and experienced

John Muir High School. Her original aspirations were in the fine arts and illustration.[2] In 1932, at age 17, Parker — then known as Lois May Green — entered a poster illustration competition, which resulted in her photograph appearing in a Los Angeles newspaper.[2] Ida Koverman, an assistant to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) executive Louis B. Mayer, saw this photo and persuaded Mayer to give Parker a screen test.[2] By Parker's account: "My ambition was to be an artist. I had no thought of acting."[13]

1932–1937: Career beginnings

Parker photographed by George Hurrell, 1935

Following a successful screen test, Parker was signed to MGM and given her stage name of Jean Parker.[2] She made her feature film debut in the drama Divorce in the Family (1932),[10] followed by an uncredited role in Rasputin and the Empress (1932).[2] She subsequently appeared in minor roles in the political fantasy film Gabriel Over the White House (1933), and the drama The Secret of Madame Blanche (also 1933).[2]

Parker with a mountain lion on the set of Sequoia (1934)

In 1933, MGM loaned Parker to

Elizabeth March opposite Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, and Frances Dee.[2] She later reflected: "Playing Beth was the hardest thing I ever did. I was scared stiff, for I had no real training in acting. To make it harder still, I was only 17 while the others were all over 24. I was terribly shy then...  but all the girls did everything they could to help me, particularly Miss Hepburn."[7]

The following year, RKO gave Parker her first starring role in Two Alone,[7] which was followed by a series of leading roles for MGM, including in the drama Sequoia, in which she played a woman living among the sequoia forests of northern California raising a mountain lion and orphaned fawn;[13] the romance Operator 13, in which she starred opposite Marion Davies and Gary Cooper, playing a Southern belle during the American Civil War;[7] and in the drama A Wicked Woman, in which she starred as the daughter of a woman (played by Mady Christians) who murders her abusive husband.[14] She also starred in the British film The Ghost Goes West for United Artists, playing the daughter of an American businessman opposite Robert Donat and Elsa Lanchester.[2]

Though forging a successful acting career at the time, Parker continued to utilize her artistic talents, contracting in June 1935 to make eight original sketches a month for a Beverly Hills shop.

Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 22, 1936.[16]

1938–1949: Film and stage

In 1938, she had the lead role in the drama

Palm Springs Airport in California, which was eventually shuttered at the outbreak of World War II.[20] In July 1942, Sanders joined the United States Coast Guard, and in September 1942 the couple were separated preceding their July 1943 divorce.[21]
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.

Parker (center) in a stage production of Light Up the Sky with Gregory Peck (second from left), 1949

Parker remained active in film throughout the war, playing opposite

Burlesque (1946–1947).[22]

In late 1948, she replaced Judy Holliday in the national touring Broadway production of Born Yesterday, co-starring with Lon Chaney Jr.[22][24] Her performance in the production was well received by audiences.[25] A review of the October 1948 Philadelphia premiere by The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the production a rave review, noting: "To say that piquant and personable Miss Parker, and Chaney as her uncouth, comedy Caliban, play their parts as though they had been written for them, is the highest possible praise, but is amply merited for the zestful spontaneity of their performances."[26] In the summer of 1949, Parker appeared in a production of the comedy play Light Up the Sky, opposite Gregory Peck, which opened at the La Jolla Playhouse[27] before having touring performances throughout the fall of that year.[28] On December 29, 1949, Parker and her third husband, Grotter, were granted a divorced following their July 1949 separation.[29] In April 1947, Jean Parker Christened Seaboard Air Line passenger train, "The Silver Comet" at New York's Penn station, before the train's first run to Birmingham, Alabama.

1950–2005: Later career and retirement

Parker and Chaney continued to appear in touring productions of Born Yesterday through 1950.

Bondi Beach by swimsuit inspector Abe Laidlaw, who measured her bikini and determined it was too skimpy.[15][32][33]

On May 19, 1951, Parker secretly married actor Robert Lowery Hanks at the home of a friend in Hialeah, Florida. The two had previously co-starred in the 1944 film The Navy Way.[34] In late 1951, Parker and Lowery co-starred in a touring stage production of Sidney Kingsley's Detective Story.[35] Critic Harold Whitehead, reviewing a Montreal performance of the play, observed that Parker seemed "shaky and ill-at-ease" throughout.[35] The following year, on September 24, 1952, Parker gave birth to her only child, a son, Robert Lowery Hanks II, in Los Angeles.[36]

Parker continued to appear occasionally in films throughout the remainder of the 1950s, including a starring role opposite

Emmy Award.[37] Later in her career and life, Parker continued a successful stint on the West Coast theatre circuit and worked as an acting coach.[15] Parker filed for divorce from her fourth husband, Lowery, in September 1957, but it was never finalized.[15] She made her last film appearance was in Apache Uprising (1965).[38]

Parker worked as an acting coach in the 1970s for a time, but spent the following several decades largely out of the public eye, earning a reputation as a "Hollywood recluse."[13]

In 1998, she moved into the

Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles.[13]

Death

Parker died of a stroke at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital on November 30, 2005.[6] She is interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.[citation needed]

Legacy

In the 1950s, columnist Erskine Johnson deemed Parker "the Liz Taylor of the 1930s."[39] Upon her death, journalist Ronald Bergan noted Parker as an under-valued actress whose career was stifled by the studio system who gave her "too little chance to shine."[2]

Filmography

Main article: List of Jean Parker performances

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f There is notable discord among sources regarding the details of Parker's birth, as various sources suggest different years, birthplaces, and birth names. The consensus agrees that her birthday was August 11, though her birth year has been variously reported as 1912,[4] 1915,[5] and 1916.[2] In the book Montana Entertainers: Famous and Almost Forgotten (2019), writer Brian D'Ambrosio erroneously lists both 1915 and 1916 as her birth year in two different sections of her biography.[5] Parker's obituaries in The New York Times[6] and The Guardian[2] both support a birth year of 1915, as they state she died at age 90. However, her obituary published in The Independent definitively states a birth year of 1916.[7]
         Additionally, although she was born in the U.S. state of Montana, there is disagreement regarding the city in which she was born: Some sources state Deer Lodge,[5][8][9] while others indicate Butte.[2][4] Her birth name has also been a point of contention, with some sources stating she was born Lois Mae Green[5][10] (a name she went by in early adulthood), and others suggesting she was born Luise Stephanie Zelinska, citing apparent Polish-French ancestry.[2][7]
         The discrepancies regarding Parker's birth were addressed by her son, Robert Hanks, in her obituary published by the Los Angeles Times, in which it was noted: "Some biographical sources say she was born Luis (or Luise) Stephanie Zelinska in Butte, Mont., in 1912, but Hanks said she was born Lois May Green in Deer Lodge, Mont., in 1915."[11] Robert's claim regarding her birth is supported by United States Census Bureau birth records for Powell County, Montana, which include a "Lois May Green" born August 11, 1915 in Deer Lodge, Montana.[12]
  2. ^ Biographer Brian D'Ambrosio states Parker relocated to California upon being adopted at age 10,[5] while an article in the Billings Gazette simply states she "moved from Montana to Pasadena at age 6 with her family."[13]

References

  1. ^ Montana, County Marriages, 1865-1950. L. A. Green and Melvina Burch (September 15, 1913); citing Marriage, Deer Lodge, Powell, Montana, various county courthouses, Montana; FHL microfilm 1,906,682. Closed access icon Archived scan of marriage license
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Bergan, Ronald (December 13, 2005). "Obituary: Jean Parker". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 28, 2013. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  3. ^ "Melvina Burch: United States Census, 1910", United States census, 1910; Powell County, Montana; roll 85, page 18B, line 98, enumeration district 74, Family History film 1,374,848. Closed access icon Archived scan of census record
  4. ^ a b Aaker 2013, p. 53.
  5. ^ a b c d e f D'Ambrosio 2019, p. 149.
  6. ^ a b "Jean Parker, Movie Actress, is Dead at 90". The New York Times. Associated Press. December 13, 2005. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Obituaries: Jean Parker". The Independent. February 6, 2006. Archived from the original on June 9, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  8. ^ "Future". New York Daily News. November 26, 1933. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Things They Ask the Tribune". Oakland Tribune. August 1, 1935. p. 21 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ a b Kear & Rossman 2008, p. 255.
  11. ^ a b Rourke, Mary (December 10, 2005). "Jean Parker, 90; Actress Had More Than 70 Film Credits, Including 'Little Women,' 'The Gunfighter'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Birth Record", United States census, 1918; Powell County, Montana; page C-393, line 27, Family History film 2,320,869. Closed access icon Archived scan of birth record
  13. ^ a b c d e "Montana-born actress Parker dies". Billings Gazette. December 10, 2005. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  14. ^ Eames 1988, p. 102.
  15. ^ a b c d e "Jean Parker profile". Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  16. ^ "Jean Parker Becomes Bride of News Man". Los Angeles Times. March 23, 1936. p. Part II - 3.
  17. ^ "Jean Parker to Wed Douglas Dawson". The Atlanta Constitution. January 20, 1941. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Jean Parker to Wed on Valentine's Day". Minneapolis Star. February 10, 1941. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Carroll, Harrison (September 23, 1941). "Behind the Scenes in Hollywood". The Jackson Sun. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ Schneck & Schneck 2013, p. 151.
  21. ^ "Jean Parker Given Los Angeles Divorce". The Boston Globe. July 9, 1943. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ a b c "Jean Parker". Internet Broadway Database. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  23. ^ Evans, Lee (October 20, 1946). "No Sparkle To Comedy". The Cincinnati Enquirer. p. 49 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Schallert, Edwin (January 16, 1949). "Jean Parker, Home at Last, Seeks 'Born Yesterday' Role for Screen". Los Angeles Times. pp. 3, 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Film Stars Teamed In 'Born Yesterday'". Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph. October 24, 1948. p. 46 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "'Yesterday' Returns to Locust". The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 5, 1948. p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ Scheuer, Philip K. (August 29, 1949). "Teresa Wright Co-Stars With Brando in 'Men'; Jean Parker Reclaimed". Los Angeles Times. p. 25 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ Fishgall 2002, p. 142.
  29. ^ "Actress Asks Divorce". The Boston Globe. July 1, 1949. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ^ "'Born Yesterday' Enjoyable With Jean Parker As Billie". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 21, 1950. p. 13 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ "Actress Sent off Bondi Beach". The Age. November 3, 1951. p. 3. Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  32. ^ Marks, Kathy (December 31, 2008). "Topless wars reignited on Australia's beaches". The Independent. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  33. ^ "Jean Parker ordered off beach". The Sun. No. 13, 030. November 2, 1951. p. 2 (LATE FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved June 26, 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  34. ^ "Showing Next Week". Tampa Times. May 13, 1944. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. ^ a b Whitehead, Harold (September 25, 1951). "Kingsley Drama Seen at Gayety". The Montreal Gazette. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  36. ^ "Film's Jean Parker Has 9-Lb Baby Boy". The Des Moines Register. September 27, 1952 – via Newspapers.com.
  37. ^ McNeil 1996, p. 793.
  38. ^ "Jean Parker, Stage and Film Actress, Is Dead at 90 - Playbill". Playbill.
  39. ^ Johnson, Erskine (April 7, 1954). "British Balk Hollywood In Effort To Get Audrey Hepburn". The Sacramento Bee. p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.

Sources

External links

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