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Willard Parker
Age: 84 (passed away Dec. 4th, 1996)
Height: 6' 3"
Birth Place: New York City, New York, USA
Born: Feb. 5th, 1912
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Willard Parker's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: As New York-born Worster Von Eps, he was a meter reader who turned professional tennis player, but in 1937, at the age of 25, he parlayed his fair-haired good looks and obvious atheticism into an acting career and changed his name to an easier-sounding marquee moniker, Willard Parker. After a number of uncredited film roles and a couple of appearances on the Broadway stage with Johnny Belinda (1940) and Lady in the Dark (1943), he was signed by Columbia in the 40s and moved into "B" movie leads and co-leads. A reliable player, most of his roles, which fell into the action adventure category, went by unnoticed, including the swashbuckling film The Fighting Guardsman (1946), and the western actioneers Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949), Apache Drums (1951), The Great Jesse James Raid (1953), Lone Texan (1959) and his Cole Younger in Young Jesse James (1960). He also had a secondary non-singing role in his best known movie, playing a bombastic Texan vying for the affections of Kathryn Grayson in the musical Kiss Me Kate (1953). In the 50s, Willard developed a semi-strong following partnered with Harry Lauter in the TV action show "Tales of the Texas Rangers" (1955-1959). He eventually retired to sell real estate. Married twice, his second wife was beautiful blonde actress Virginia Field (I), who appeared with him in the British sci-fi flick, The Earth Dies Screaming (1964). They had no children together, but Willard did have a son by his previous marriage to former stage actress Marion Pierce. In 1974, he suffered a stroke. He died of heart failure in his 80s.
TRIVIA:
- One son with 'Marion Pierce' (qv). He became a banker.
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