A ravishing redheaded leading lady of the 1940s and 50s, Eleanor Parker signed a contract with Warner Bros. on her 18th birthday after gaining experience on stage in Cleveland, summer stock and at the Pasadena Playhouse. She made her debut in Raoul Walsh's "They Died with Their Boots On" (1941) before graduating to starring status in distinguished films like "Pride of the Marines" (1945, her third movie with director Delmer Daves), and "Voice of the Turtle" (1947, opposite Ronald Reagan), adapted from John van Druten's Broadway hit. Parker reached the zenith of her popularity and acclaim in the early 50s, winning three Best Actress Oscar nominations for her terrorized prison inmate in "Caged" (1950), as Kirk Douglas' neglected wife with a secret in "Detective Story" (1951) and as polio-stricken opera star Marjorie Lawrence in "Interrupted Melody" (1955). That same year, she was also memorable as Frank Sinatra's beautiful but hateful crippled wife in Otto Preminger's "The Man with the Golden Arm".
Parker's career had definitely peaked, and though she would reteam with Raoul Walsh for "The King and Four Queens" (1956, with Clark Gable) and Sinatra for Frank Capra's "A Hole in the Head" (1959), her best work of the late 50s was in Hugo Haas's "Lizzie", in which she was excellent as a woman with three distinct personalities, and Carl Schultz's "The Seventh Sin" (both 1957), playing the adulterous wife of a doctor who redeems herself during an epidemic. "Madison Avenue" (1962) marked her last starring role in a picture, but Parker continued to appear in secondary roles through the 70s, most notably as the Baroness in Robert Wise's "The Sound of Music" (1965). After headlining the NBC melodrama about the movie business "Bracken's World" (1969-70) and appearing in her final feature to date, "Sunburn" (1979), Parker acted in three TV-movies, "Once Upon a Spy" (ABC, 1980), "Madame X" (NBC, 1981) and "Dead on the Money" (TNT, 1991), in addition to the 1986 "Stage Struck" episode of CBS' "Murder, She Wrote".
Family
DAUGHTER: Susan Friedlob. Born in 1948.
DAUGHTER: Sharon Friedlob. Born in 1950.
SON: Richard Friedlob. Born in 1952.
SON: Paul Clemens. Actor. Born in 1958.
Companion
HUSBAND: Fred L Losse. Dentist. US Naval lieutenant; married on March 21, 1943; divorced on December 5, 1944.
HUSBAND: Bert Friedlob. Producer. Eloped to Las Vegas on January 5, 1946; divorced on November 10, 1953.
HUSBAND: Paul Clemens. Artist. Introduced by William Holden; married on November 25, 1954; divorced on March 9, 1965.
HUSBAND: Raymond N Hirsch. Businessman. Married on April 17, 1966.
Milestone
Raised in Cleveland, Ohio
1932: Began her career at the age of ten with the Cleveland Playhouse Curtain Pullers (date approximate)
Acted throughout her teens in summer stock in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
1939: Enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse after graduating from high school; discovered by a Warner Bros. talent scout (date approximate)
1940: Signed a contract with Warners on her 18th birthday
1941: Film debut, a bit part in "They Died With Their Boots On"
Achieved star status in the mid-1940s in films including "Pride of the Marines" (1945) and "Of Human Bondage" (1946)
1950: Received first Oscar nomination for her leading role in "Caged"
1950: Last picture with Warner Bros., "Three Secrets", paired her with director Robert Wise; began free-lancing
1951: Picked up second Oscar nomination for William Wyler's "Detective Story"
1955: Received the last of her three Oscar nominations as Best Actress for her work in "Interrupted Melody"
1955: Beautiful but hateful as the wheelchair wife in Otto Preminger's "Man with the Golden Arm", starring Frank Sinatra
1959: Second film with Sinatra, Frank Capra's "A Hole in the Head"
1962: Last starring role in "Madison Avenue"
1965: Received "guest star" billing for her prominent supporting role as the Baroness in the popular musical film, "The Sound of Music", directed by Wise
1969 - 1970: TV series debut as regular, "Bracken's World" (NBC)
1970: Returned to the stage; toured for two seasons in a production of "Forty Carats"
1971: Played bickering wife of Jackie Cooper and mother to Sally Field's hippie runaway in ABC movie "Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring"
1973: Headlined ABC movie "The Great American Beauty Contest"
1975: Starred in comedy pilot, Stanley Kramer's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (ABC), based on the director's 1967 feature
1978: Portrayed Lady Amberly in syndicated miniseries "The Bastard"
1979: Returned to feature films after a ten-year absence to play a role in "Sunburn"; last feature film to date
Acted in TV movies "Once Upon a Spy" (ABC, 1980) and "Madame X" (NBC, 1981), the seventh version of the famed weeper
1986: Appeared in "Stage Struck" episode of "Murder She Wrote" (CBS)
1991: Played Catherine Blake in TNT movie "Dead on the Money"
Education
Pasadena Playhouse - Pasadena, California
Bibliography
"Eleanor Parker, Woman of a Thousand Faces: A Bio-Bibliography and Filmography" Doug McClelland 1989
"Eleanor Powell: First Lady of Dance" Alice B Levin
AmbushAnnie
Eleanor Parker... exquisite actress...
Just got thru watching Errol Flynn & Eleanor Parker in Never Say Goodbye (1946), a silly comedy, but fun to ...
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Brian Haggerty
Eleanor Parker -
Ms Parker is truly one of the most underappreciated talents in the business. I always went to the movies to ...
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