Jean Parker

Jean Parker
File:Jean Parker 1934.png 1934
Born	Lois Mae Green (1915-08-11)August 11, 1915 Deer Lodge, Montana, U.S.
Died	Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Years active	1932–1966
Spouse(s)	Robert Lowery (1951–71; his death); 1 child Curtis Grotter (1944–49; divorced) Douglas Dawson (1941–43; divorced) George MacDonald (1936–40; divorced)

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.

Career

Born in Deer Lodge, Montana as Lois Mae Green, both her father, Lewis, who was variously a gunsmith, a hunter and a chef, and her mother, Pearl, one of 18 children of a pioneer family, were unemployed during the depression of the 1930s. She 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. She attended Pasadena schools and graduated from John Muir High School. Her original aspirations were in the fine arts and illustration.

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 auditioned unsuccessfully for the role of Melanie in Gone with the Wind. On November 9, 1939 she opened the Downtown Theatre in Oakland, California, and in December 1941, at the Orinda Theater in Contra Costa County.

Parker remained active in film throughout the 1940s, playing opposite Lon Chaney in Dead Man's Eyes, and a variety of other films. Parker managed her own airport and flying service with then-husband Doug Dawson in Palm Springs, California until shortly after the start of World War II. During the war, 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.

Personal life

Utilizing her artistic talents, Parker contracted in June 1935 to make eight original sketches a month for a Beverly Hills shop. In December 1935, Parker became engaged to New York socialite newspaperman George E. McDonald, and eloped with him to Las Vegas on March 21, 1936. McDonald continued his business affairs on the East Coast, and after less than four years of marriage, Parker was granted an interlocutory decree of divorce on January 23, 1940. On February 14, 1941, Parker married Los Angeles radio commentator Henry Dawson Sanders, known professionally as Doug Dawson. The couple operated a flying service from Palm Springs Airport in California, which was shuttered at the outbreak of World War II.

In July 1942, her husband joined the Coast Guard, and in September 1942 they separated and were divorced in July 1943. A month after she was granted her final divorce decree on July 29, 1944, Parker married Dr. Kurt "Curtis" Arthur Grotter, a Hollywood insurance broker and former correspondent for a group of Czechoslovakian newspapers and active with the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, as he had a substantial loss of vision. They were separated on June 19, 1949, and divorced on December 29, 1949. On May 19, 1951, she secretly married actor Robert Lowery (born Robert Hanks), at the home of a friend in Hialeah, Florida. Lowery had played Batman in 1949; he was featured in over seventy films in his own career. By this marriage, Parker bore her only child, Robert Lowery Hanks.

While appearing at a nightclub in Sydney, Australia in 1951, Parker made international headlines when she was escorted off Bondi Beach by swimsuit inspector Abe Laidlaw, who measured her bikini and determined it was too skimpy. In 1952, Parker gave birth to a son, Robert Lowery Hanks, who works as an executive for the city of Los Angeles. She and Lowery filed for divorce in September 1957, but it was never finalized.

Death

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.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1932	Rasputin and the Empress	Princess Maria	Uncredited
1932	Divorce in the Family	Lucile
1933	Gabriel Over the White House	Alice Bronson
1933	The Secret of Madame Blanche	Eloise
1933	Made on Broadway	Adele
1933	What Price Innocence?	Ruth Harper
1933	Storm at Daybreak	Danitza
1933	Lady for a Day	Louise
1933	Little Women	Beth March
1934	Two Alone	Mazy
1934	You Can't Buy Everything	Elizabeth 'Beth' Burton Bell
1934	Lazy River	Sarah Lescalle
1934	Operator 13	Eleanor Shackleford
1934	Have a Heart	Sally Moore
1934	Caravan	Timka
1934	A Wicked Woman	Rosanne
1934	Limehouse Blues	Toni
1934	Sequoia	Toni Martin
1935	Princess O'Hara	Princess O'Hara
1935	Murder in the Fleet	Betty Lansing
1935	The Ghost Goes West	Peggy Martin
1935	The Texas Rangers	Amanda Bailey
1936	The Farmer in the Dell	Adie Boye
1937	Life Begins with Love	Carole Martin
1937	The Barrier	Necia Gale
1938	Penitentiary	Elizabeth Mathews
1938	Romance of the Limberlost	Laurie
1938	The Arkansas Traveler	Judy Allen
1939	Romance of the Redwoods	June Martin
1939	Zenobia	Mary Tibbett
1939	She Married a Cop	Linda Fay
1939	Flight at Midnight	Maxine Scott
1939	The Flying Deuces	Georgette
1939	Parents on Trial	Susan Wesley
1940	Knights of the Range	Holly Ripple
1940	Son of the Navy	Stevie Moore
1940	Beyond Tomorrow	Jean Lawrence
1940	Young America Files	Jane	Short film
1941	Roar of the Press	Alice Williams
1941	Power Dive	Carol Blake
1941	The Pittsburgh Kid	Patricia Mallory
1941	Flying Blind	Shirley Brooks
1941	No Hands on the Clock	Louise Campbell
1942	Torpedo Boat	Grace Holman
1942	I Live on Danger	Susan Richards
1942	The Girl from Alaska	Mary 'Pete' McCoy
1942	Hello, Annapolis	Doris Henley
1942	Tomorrow We Live	Julie Bronson
1942	Hi, Neighbor	Dorothy Greenfield
1942	Wrecking Crew	Peggy Starr
1942	The Traitor Within	Molly Betts
1943	High Explosive	Connie Baker
1943	Alaska Highway	Ann Coswell
1943	Minesweeper	Mary Smith
1943	The Deerslayer	Judith Hutter
1944	The Navy Way	Ellen Sayre
1944	Lady in the Death House	Mary Kirk Logan
1944	Detective Kitty O'Day	Kitty O'Day
1944	Oh, What a Night	Valerie
1944	Dead Man's Eyes	Heather Hayden
1944	Bluebeard	Lucille Lutien
1944	One Body Too Many	Carol Dunlap
1945	Adventures of Kitty O'Day	Kitty O'Day
1946	Rolling Home	Frances Crawford
1950	The Gunfighter	Molly
1952	Toughest Man in Arizona	Della
1953	Those Redheads From Seattle	Liz
1954	Black Tuesday	Hattie Combest
1955	A Lawless Street	Cora Dean
1957	The Parson and the Outlaw	Mrs. Sarah Jones
1965	Apache Uprising	Mrs. Hawks

External links

• Jean Parker at the Internet Movie Database
• Jean Parker at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jean Parker at the TCM Movie Database
• Jean Parker at AllMovie
• Photographs of Jean Parker