ELEANOR PARKER

'Eleanor Jean Parker' (born June 26, 1922) is an American film and television actress.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Academy Award nominations

External links

Biography

Early life

Parker was born in Cedarville, Ohio, and was signed by Warner Brothers in 1941, at the age of 19. She would have debuted that year in the film ''They Died with Their Boots On'', but her scenes were cut.

Career

By 1946, she had starred in ''Between Two Worlds'', ''Hollywood Canteen'', ''Pride of the Marines'' and ''Of Human Bondage''. In 1950 she received the first of three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for ''Caged'', in which she played a prison inmate. She was also nominated in 1951 for her performance as Kirk Douglas's wife in ''Detective Story'' and again in 1955 for her portrayal of opera singer Marjorie Lawrence in the film bio, ''Interrupted Melody''. Parker was overlooked for her superb role opposite Charlton Heston as a circa 1900 mail-order bride in George Pal's jungle fantasy film about attacking killer ants, ''The Naked Jungle''. That same year, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man With The Golden Arm, in which she plays Zosh, the invalid wife of a morphine addict played by Frank Sinatra, and directed by Otto Preminger. In 1956, she was billed above the title alongside Clark Gable for the Raoul Walsh-directed western comedy ''The King and Four Queens''. A year later, she starred in another W. Somerset Maugham novel, a remake of a ''The Painted Veil'' in the role originated by Greta Garbo, released as ''The Seventh Sin''. She also appeared in ''Home from the Hill''. Her most famous screen role was as Baroness Elsa Schraeder in 1965's ''The Sound Of Music''.
She broke the champagne bottle on the nose of the inaugural train-set for the ''California Zephyr'' in San Francisco, California on March 19, 1949. Parker was famous in Hollywood during the Golden Era, but she is less remembered now despite numerous movies and Oscar nominations. She played an erotically charged drunken, mature widow in ''Warning Shot'' in 1966 where she demonstrated both elegance and sex appeal. Parker could play the sexy evil dame, too. She was especially delicious as a sultry spy in "How to Steal the World" in 1968; this over-the-top espionage film was originally shown as a two-part episode on ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' television series. In 1969-70 she starred in the television series ''Bracken's World'' and several made-for-television movies. She has also starred in a number of theatrical productions, including the musical ''Applause''. She is the mother of actor Paul Clemens, as well as 3 other children by another marriage. She wrote the preface to the book "How Your Mind Can Keep You Well", a meditation techniquedeveloped by Roy Masters.

Academy Award nominations

★ 1955 - ''Interrupted Melody''

★ 1951 - ''Detective Story''

★ 1950 - ''Caged''
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6340 Hollywood Blvd.

External links

★

★

★ Eleanor Parker reviews at The Stop Button