Jean Parker made her feature film debut in the pre-code drama Divorce in the Family, before being loaned to Columbia Pictures, who cast her in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day.
24 Facts About Jean Parker
2.
Jean Parker made her Broadway debut in 1946, in the title role of Loco, followed by a leading role in the Broadway production of Burlesque opposite Bert Lahr.
3.
Jean Parker gave birth to her only child, son Robert Lowery Hanks Jr.
4.
Jean Parker made her final film appearance in 1965's Apache Uprising.
5.
Jean Parker spent her later years in California, where she died of a stroke at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles in 2005.
6.
Many of the details surrounding Jean Parker's birth have been reported with little consistency.
7.
Jean Parker relocated there, and attended elementary school before graduating from Pasadena's John Muir High School.
8.
Jean Parker made her feature film debut in the drama Divorce in the Family, followed by an uncredited role in Rasputin and the Empress.
9.
Jean Parker subsequently appeared in minor roles in the political fantasy film Gabriel Over the White House, and the drama The Secret of Madame Blanche.
10.
Jean Parker starred in the British film The Ghost Goes West for United Artists, playing the daughter of an American businessman opposite Robert Donat and Elsa Lanchester.
11.
In December 1935, Parker became engaged to New York socialite newspaperman George E McDonald, and eloped with him to Las Vegas, Nevada on March 22,1936.
12.
In January 1940, after four years of marriage to McDonald, Jean Parker was granted an interlocutory decree of divorce, which was finalized on January 23,1941.
13.
On February 14,1941, Jean Parker married Los Angeles radio commentator Henry Dawson Sanders, known professionally as Douglas Dawson.
14.
Jean Parker remained active in film throughout the war, playing opposite Lon Chaney Jr.
15.
Jean Parker and Chaney has appeared in touring productions of Born Yesterday through 1950.
16.
Also in 1950, Jean Parker returned to film with a supporting role in The Gunfighter opposite Gregory Peck, playing a saloon singer.
17.
On May 19,1951, Jean Parker secretly married actor Robert Lowery Hanks at the home of a friend in Hialeah, Florida.
18.
Critic Harold Whitehead, reviewing a Montreal performance of the play, observed that Jean Parker seemed "shaky and ill-at-ease" throughout.
19.
In 1954, Jean 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.
20.
Later in her career and life, Jean Parker continued a successful stint on the West Coast theatre circuit and worked as an acting coach.
21.
Jean Parker filed for divorce from her fourth husband, Lowery, in September 1957, but it was never finalized.
22.
Jean Parker made her last film appearance was in Apache Uprising.
23.
Jean Parker died of a stroke at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital on November 30,2005.
24.
Jean Parker is interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.