Fess Parker

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Fess Elisha Parker Jr. (born August 16, 1924) is an American film and television actor.


Contents

[edit] Early Years

He was born in Fort Worth, Texas. Parker is best known for his role playing frontiersmen Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone as well as starting a fad of wearing coonskin caps. He served in the US Navy attached to the Marine Corps at the end of World War II He enlisted to become a pilot but was rejected as an aviator for being too tall (He is six feet, five inches).

After being discharged, he was stabbed in the neck by a drunken driver during a post-collision argument. Parker required many months of rehabilitation, but he was unable afterwards to participate in collegiate sports as much as he wanted.

At the University of Texas he was initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity in 1948. Parker graduated from the University in 1950 with a history degree he moved to California where he studied drama at the University of Southern California, .


[edit] Acting Career

He began his show business career in the play, Mister Roberts, in 1951 and was subsequently hired by the Walt Disney Studios in 1954 to play historic figure Crockett. He also made guest appearances on television programs and composed and sang music.

He married Marcella Rinehart in 1960, and the couple has two children, Ashley and Eli. From 1964-1970 he starred in the NBC TV series, Daniel Boone. Parker retired from the film industry in the 1970s, after the short-lived 1974 sitcom The Fess Parker Show.


[edit] Current Work

Parker currently owns and operates a family winery, Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard, near Santa Barbara, California along with two hotels, the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort which he designed and developed(part owner and jointly manages with the Hilton Hotels Corporation) in Santa Barbara and the Fess Parker's Wine Country Inn and Spa in nearby Los Olivos which he owns and manages.

[edit] Selective Filmography

  • Untamed Frontier (1952)
  • Springfield Rifle (1952) — not credited.
  • Them! (1954)
  • The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
  • Old Yeller (1957)
  • The Light in the Forest (1958)
  • The Jayhawkers (1959)
  • Hell is for Heroes (1962)
  • Davy Crockett
  • Daniel Boone

[edit] External links

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