Eleanor Parker (Cedarville, Ohio, SAD, June 26, 1922 - Palm Springs, California, USA, December 9, 2013)
American film and television actress whose career began in the 1940s. She started to act in a theatre in Cleveland, and as a teenager she went on to act in a theatre in Pasadena, California. After signing with the Warner Brothers Studio, her career advanced from B movies to her first A movie Edward A. Blatt’s Between Two Worlds (1944). In Delmer Daves’ post war drama Pride of the Marines (1945) she played the lead female role. Edmund Goulding’s drama Of Human Bondage (1946) and James V. Kerns comedy Never Say Goodbye (1946), in which she starred opposite Errol Flynn, did not achieve much success. The next big break was her role in Stuart Heisler’s action movie Chain Lightning (1950) opposite Humphrey Bogart. However, this movie also underperformed but the very next one proved to be a success – John Cromwell’s drama Caged (1950), in which she played the leading role of a young, naive, wrongly imprisoned woman and was nominated for an Oscar. She was not awarded the statue but her consolation prize was the award for Best Actress at the Venice festival. In 1950, she decided not to renew her contract with Warner Bros and continued her career as an independent actress. She starred in several unnoticed movies that were followed by her role in the film Detective Story (1951). She played Kirk Douglas’ wife and was once again nominated for an Oscar. This was followed by roles in George Sidney’s historical adventure film Scaramouche (1952), John Sturges’ western Escape from Fort Bravo (1953) and Byron Haskins’ adventure film The Naked Jungle (1954). She studied singing so that she could play the role of the Australian opera diva Marjorie Lawrence, who ends up paralyzed in a wheelchair, in Curtis Bernhardt’s Interrupted Melody (1955). For this role she was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress for the third time in her career. She had a minor but noticeable role in Otto Preminger’s drama Man With the Golden Arm (1955) as Frank Sinatra’s wife. In Raul Walsh’s The King and Four Queens (1956) she played opposite Clark Gable, and then got a greater role in Hugo Haas’ low budget psychological thriller Lizzie (1957) in which she portrayed three different characters. She again starred opposite Frank Sinatra in Frank Capra’s comedy A Hole in the Head, (1959), and later in Vincent Minnelli’s romantic drama Home from the Hill (1960) opposite Robert Mitchum. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960. However, in the early sixties her career was on the decline and she began acting in television films and series. One of the last major productions in which she performed was in José Ferrer’s Return to Peyton Place (1961). Her final noteworthy role was as the baroness in Robert Wise’s musical The Sound of Music (1965). Towards the end of her career some of her better roles were in, the otherwise not so good, Robert Gist’s See You in Hell, Darling (1966) and Dino Risi’s Italian comedy The Tiger and The Pussycat (1967). Although she continued to make films and series until 1991 (predominately for television), they were mostly unnoticed and minor roles that could not be compared with any from her earlier career. She died in early December 2013 at the age of 91.
Filmography:
Sunburn (1979)
Eye of the Cat (1969)
The Tiger and the Pussycat (1967)
An American Dream (1966)
The Oscar (1966)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Panic Button (1964)
Madison Avenue (1962)
Return to Peyton Place (1961)
Home from the Hill (1960)
A Hole in the Head (1959)
The Seventh Sin (1957)
Lizzie (1957)
The King and Four Queens (1956)
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Interrupted Melody (1955)
Many Rivers to Cross (1955)
Valley of the Kings (1954)
The Naked Jungle (1954)
Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
Above and Beyond (1952)
Scaramouche (1952)
Detective Story (1951)
A Millionaire for Christy (1951)
Valentino (1951)
Three Secrets (1950)
Caged (1950)
Chain Lightning (1950)
It's a Great Feeling (1949) (uncredited)
The Woman in White (1948)
The Voice of the Turtle (1947)
Always Together (1947) (uncredited)
Escape Me Never (1947)
Never Say Goodbye (1946)
Of Human Bondage (1946)
Pride of the Marines (1945)
Hollywood Canteen (1944)
The Very Thought of You (1944)
The Last Ride (1944) (medium length feature)
Crime by Night (1944)
Atlantic City (1944) (uncredited)
Between Two Worlds (1944)
Destination Tokyo (1943) (voice, uncredited)
Mission to Moscow (1943)
The Mysterious Doctor (1943) (medium length feature)
Vaudeville Days (1942) (uncredited, short feature)
Busses Roar (1942) (medium length feature)
Men of the Sky (1942) (short feature)
The Big Shot (1942) (voice, uncredited)
Soldiers in White (1942) (short feature)
They Died with Their Boots On (1941) (scenes deleted)
