Jean Parker

Born: 1915-08-11

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 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. Parker 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. Parker's film debut came in Divorce in the Family (1932). 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 remained active in film throughout the 1940s, playing opposite Lon Chaney in Dead Man's Eyes, and a variety of other films. During World War II, 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). 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. 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. Later in her career and life, Parker continued a successful stint on the West Coast theatre circuit and worked as an acting coach. 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.


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The Gunfighter

as Molly
Released: 1950-06-23

The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.

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Little Women

as Beth
Released: 1933-11-24

Little Women is a coming-of-age drama tracing the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy....

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Bluebeard

as Lucille
Released: 1944-10-26

Young female models are being strangled. Will law enforcement be able to stop the crime wave...

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Murder in the Fleet

as Betty Lansing
Released: 1935-05-24

A traitor is lurking somewhere aboard the USS Carolina, and Lt. Tom Randolph is determined to...

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Lady for a Day

as Louise
Released: 1933-09-13

Never-wed, poor, rough around the edges Apple Annie has always written to her daughter, Louise,...

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Rasputin and the Empress

as Princess Maria (uncredited)
Released: 1932-12-23

The story of corrupt, power-hungry, manipulative Grigori Rasputin's influence on members of the...

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The Flying Deuces

as Georgette
Released: 1939-11-03

Ollie falls in love with a woman. When he discovers she's already married, he unsuccessfully...

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Lady in the Death House

as Mary Kirk Logan
Released: 1944-03-15

As a woman walks the "last mile" to her execution she remembers back to the incidents that got...

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Those Redheads from Seattle

as Liz
Released: 1953-10-16

A woman takes her four beautiful daughters to Alaska during the Gold Rush to find their fortune.

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Black Tuesday

as Hatti Combest
Released: 1954-12-31

Vicious gangster Vincent Canelli pulls off a daring prison escape just moments before going to...

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A Lawless Street

as Cora Dean
Released: 1955-11-15

A Marshal must face unpleasant facts about his past when he attempts to run a criminal gang out...

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A Wicked Woman

as Rosanne Stroud, aka Rosanne Trice
Released: 1934-12-07

A woman and her children escape severe poverty and abuse. She successfully betters her family's...

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Power Dive

as Carol Blake
Released: 1941-06-04

The story concentrated on a group of test pilots, busily experimenting with a revolutionary...

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Beyond Tomorrow

as Jean Lawrence
Released: 1940-05-10

The ghosts of three elderly industrialists killed in an airplane crash return to Earth to help...

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Caravan

as Timka
Released: 1934-12-30

A countess marries a Gypsy fiddler instead of a baron's son at harvest time in Tokay wine...

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Lazy River

as Sarah Lescalle
Released: 1934-03-16

Ex-convicts try to stop a Chinese smuggling ring.

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One Body Too Many

as Carol Dunlap
Released: 1944-11-24

An insurance salesman, Albert Tuttle, is hired as a body guard for a millionaire.

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Wrecking Crew

as Peggy Starr
Released: 1942-11-07

Follows a crew as they work under a deadline set by their boss to complete the demolition of a...

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Flying Blind

as Shirley Brooks
Released: 1941-08-29

A spy steals a secret military device, then hijacks an airliner to get away. The airliner...

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Romance of the Redwoods

as June Martin
Released: 1939-03-29

June Martin is a dishwasher in a California logging camp boarding house. Steve Blake fights Jed...

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The Navy Way

as Ellen Sayre
Released: 1944-02-26

The experiences of a disparate group of young men as they make their way through Navy boot camp.

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You Can't Buy Everything

as Elizabeth 'Beth' Burton Bell
Released: 1934-01-26

A scorned woman dreams of revenge on the man who betrayed her.

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Divorce In The Family

as Miss Lucile SmIth
Released: 1932-08-27

A child struggles to come to terms with his parents' divorce. Director Charles Reisner's 1932...

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The Traitor Within

as Molly Betts
Released: 1942-12-16

In this drama, a truck driver begins wooing a young woman who still lives with her father who...

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Limehouse Blues

as Toni
Released: 1934-12-11

Fresh from Chinatown in New York, Harry Young has taken over the illegal import business in the...

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Knights of the Range

as Holly Ripple
Released: 1940-02-23

Russell Hayden, taking a break from playing Hopalong Cassidy pictures, stars as Renn Frayne, a...

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Apache Uprising

as Mrs. Hawks
Released: 1965-12-29

Various stage coach passengers and outlaws travelling through Indian country are forced to join...

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Alaska Highway

as Ann Coswell
Released: 1943-06-24

Pop Ormsby wins the contract from the Army Engineer Corps for the construction of the Alaska...

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Made on Broadway

as Adele
Released: 1933-05-19

A satire about the power of publicity. Robert Montgomery plays Jeff Bidwell, a dashing Broadway...

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Dead Man's Eyes

as Heather Hayden
Released: 1944-11-10

Artist David Stuart is blinded by a jealous model whose portrait he is painting. His fiance's...

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No Hands on the Clock

as Mrs. Louise Campbell
Released: 1941-12-01

A wise-cracking private detective's honeymoon is interrupted by a kidnapping case.

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Operator 13

as Eleanor
Released: 1934-06-08

American Civil War, 1862. After the disaster of the Second Battle of Bull Run, Major Allen,...

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Princess O'Hara

as Princess O'Hara
Released: 1935-03-31

When King's beloved horse dies, Princess tries to purchase a new nag, and that's how she...

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Roar of the Press

as Alice Williams
Released: 1941-04-17

While on their honeymoon, a reporter and his new bride stumble upon a ring of fifth columnists.

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Romance of the Limberlost

as Laurie
Released: 1938-06-16

An orphaned girl is being raised in the Limberlost by her aunt, who hates her because the girl's...

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The Texas Rangers

as Amanda Bailey
Released: 1936-08-28

Two down-on-their-luck former outlaws volunteer to be Texas Rangers and find themselves assigned...

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The Ghost Goes West

as Peggy Martin
Released: 1935-12-17

Donald Glourie shares his crumbling ancestral home with the ghost of his Highland ancestor,...

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The Parson and the Outlaw

as Sarah Jones
Released: 1957-09-23

Billy the Kid fakes his own death at the hands of Pat Garret, but is forced to come out of...

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Have a Heart

as Sally Moore
Released: 1934-09-07

Sally (Jean Parker) is engaged to be married, loves dancing and kids. But her life is ruined...

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The Girl from Alaska

as Mary 'Pete' McCoy
Released: 1942-04-16

A would-be prospector becomes involved in a plot to deceive an old prospector of his cache, but...

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Flight at Midnight

as Maxine Scott
Released: 1939-08-28

Spinner McGee, devil-may-care mail pilot volunteers his courage and skill for the task of...

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High Explosive

as Connie Baker
Released: 1943-03-27

Mike Douglas (Barry Sullivan), owner of a nitroglycerin concern hires his old friend "Buzz"...

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Rolling Home

as Frances Crawford
Released: 1946-11-01

An elderly rodeo rider, his young grandson and their injured horse help transform the lives of...

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Storm at Daybreak

as Danitza
Released: 1933-06-14

Sarajevo June 28, 1914. Dushan, the Serbian mayor of a Hungarian town, has come to see the...

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Penitentiary

as Elizabeth Mathews
Released: 1938-02-05

The story of a D.A. who becomes a prison warden and winds up overseeing the sentence of a man he...

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I Live on Danger

as Susan Richards
Released: 1942-06-16

A cocky radio reporter sets out to prove an ex-convict is innocent in the murder of a mob boss.

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Zenobia

as Mary Tibbett
Released: 1939-04-21

A modest country doctor in the antebellum South has to contend with his daughter's upcoming...

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Minesweeper

as Mary Smith
Released: 1943-11-10

A naval officer who had deserted several years earlier is drawn back to the Navy when World War...

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Son of the Navy

as Stevie Moore
Released: 1940-03-30

A runaway boy pretends to be the son of a Navy man, only to turn both their lives upside down.

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The Barrier

as Necia Gale
Released: 1937-12-10

Gale, a store owner, lives in an Alaskan village with his grown ward, Necia, whom he had rescued...

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Toughest Man in Arizona

as Della
Released: 1952-10-10

Marshal Landry captures outlaw Girard and bringing him in finds a woman and two children, the...

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as Kitty O'Day
Released: 1944-05-13

Convinced that she has what it takes to be a detective, inquisitive secretary Kitty O'Day gets...

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See!

Hollywood: The Selznick Years

as 'Little Women' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: 1961-12-31

Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O....

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Oh, What a Night!

as Valerie
Released: 1944-09-02

An international jewel thief tries to keep his secret from his neice.

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Adventures of Kitty O'Day

as Kitty O'Day
Released: 1945-01-19

A telephone operator plays homicide detective with her boyfriend, making it harder for the police.

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Hello, Annapolis

as Doris Henley
Released: 1942-04-23

Rivals Bill Arden and Paul Herbert enter the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in order to impress...

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Torpedo Boat

as Grace Holman
Released: 1942-01-24

Richard Arlen and Phil Terry star as Skimmer and Tommy, two lifelong buddies who've invented a...

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Gabriel Over the White House

as Alice Bronson
Released: 1933-03-31

A political hack becomes President during the height of the Depression and undergoes a...

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Life Begins with Love

as Carole Martin
Released: 1937-10-06

A spoiled playboy is forced to leave town to avoid the press, which latches on to his statement,...

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The Secret of Madame Blanche

as Eloise
Released: 1933-02-03

A murder trial reunites a former chorus girl and her son, a grandson of an English aristocrat.

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Two Alone

as Mazie
Released: 1934-01-26

Mazie, a poor orphan girl, is mistreated by cruel farmer Slag and his wife for whom she works....

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The Deerslayer

as Judith Hutter
Released: 1943-11-22

Deerslayer, a white man who was brought up by the Mohicans, helps his old tribe when the Hurons...

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Tomorrow We Live

as Julie Bronson
Released: 1942-09-23

Julie Bronson, whose father operates a desert cafe, is attracting the unwanted attention of a...

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The Farmer in the Dell

as Adie Boyer
Released: 1936-03-27

An Iowa farmer's wife makes him move to Hollywood so their daughter can become a star.

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Sequoia

as Toni Martin
Released: 1935-01-16

A wilderness girl raises a deer and a mountain lion to be friends.

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Parents on Trial

as Susan Wesley
Released: 1939-09-21

According to Hollywood, the parents were generally at fault when good kids went bad. This theory...

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Young America Flies

as Jane
Released: 1940-07-13

World War II propaganda film from Warner Brothers.

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She Married a Cop

as Linda Fay
Released: 1939-07-11

This comedy is set in New York and centers upon a singing Irish cop who causes quite a sensation...

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The Arkansas Traveler

as Judy Allen
Released: 1938-10-14

The Arkansas Traveler, an itinerant printer, returns to a small town to help save The Daily...

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Hi, Neighbor

as Dorothy Greenfield
Released: 1942-07-27

A financially strapped college is transformed into a summer holiday resort with the help of...

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Cargo of Love

as Denise
Released: 1968-06-23

A young woman answering an ad for a traveling companion winds up drugged, kidnapped and in the...

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What Price Innocence?

as Ruth Harper
Released: 1933-06-24

A young woman has to pay the price for fooling around with men.

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The Pittsburgh Kid

as Patricia Mallory
Released: 1941-08-29

Unable to sign boxer Joe Louis to movie contract, Republic Pictures had to make do with the...

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Matinee Theater

as uncredited
First aired: 1955-10-31

Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of...

TV Show page

Suspense

as uncredited
First aired: 1949-01-06

An anthology series adapted from the radio program of the same name. Like the radio program,...

TV Show page

Stories of the Century

as Ella Watson aka Cattle Kate
First aired: 1954-01-23

Stories of the Century is a 39-episode Western television series starring Jim Davis that ran in...

TV Show page