Eleanor Parker

Eleanor Jean Parker was born on June 26, 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio, to Lola (née Isett) and Lester Day Parker. The family later relocated to East Cleveland, Ohio, where Parker attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. Following graduation, she traveled to Martha's Vineyard to pursue acting, working as a waitress while there. She declined a screen test offered by 20th Century Fox and instead moved to California, where she began performing at the Pasadena Playhouse. A Warner Bros. talent scout named Irving Kumin spotted her in the audience at the Playhouse one evening and offered her a test, which she accepted. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941.

Parker's early Warner Bros. work included small and supporting parts. Though cast in They Died with Their Boots On, her scenes were cut, and her actual screen debut came as Nurse Ryan in the 1942 short film Soldiers in White. She appeared in the B films Busses Roar (1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (1943), along with a minor role in Mission to Moscow (1943). That performance led to her replacing Joan Leslie in Between Two Worlds (1944), opposite Paul Henreid. She subsequently took the starring role in The Very Thought of You (1944) with Dennis Morgan, stepping in for Ida Lupino, and received a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (1944). Parker later identified her casting opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (1945) as the pivotal break of her career. Warner Bros. then assigned her the role of Mildred Rogers in Of Human Bondage (1946), an adaptation of the Somerset Maugham novel directed by Edmund Goulding, though the film received an underwhelming reception upon its delayed release. Parker herself named it her favorite role as of 1953. Two subsequent films with Errol Flynn, Never Say Goodbye (1946) and Escape Me Never (1947), performed poorly at the box office. During 1947 and 1948, Parker was suspended multiple times by the studio for refusing certain roles, including parts in Stallion Road and Love and Learn, and she received her salary for only approximately six months across those two years.

It was during this same period, 1947 to 1948, that Parker appeared on Broadway. Her stage credits included Brigadoon and Where's Charley?, marking her work in the theater alongside her film career.

Parker returned to film with Chain Lightning opposite Humphrey Bogart, and then lobbied successfully for the lead role in Caged (1950), a Warner Bros. production set in a women's prison. The performance earned her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and her first Academy Award nomination. She also appeared in Three Secrets (1950) before departing Warner Bros. in February of that year, after eight years under contract, following a dispute over a promised project called Safe Harbor that the studio did not intend to produce.

Her post-Warner Bros. career began with Valentino (1951) and the comedy A Millionaire for Christy (1951). She then signed a contract with Paramount for one film per year, beginning with Detective Story (1951), directed by William Wyler. Parker played Mary McLeod opposite Kirk Douglas and received her second Academy Award nomination for the role, which has been noted as the shortest leading performance to receive a nomination in that category. She followed that film with Scaramouche (1952) at MGM, a role originally intended for Ava Gardner, opposite Stewart Granger. The film was a major commercial success. MGM then cast her in Above and Beyond (1952), a biopic centered on Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., played by Robert Taylor, and Parker signed a five-year contract with the studio while filming Escape from Fort Bravo (1953). She reunited with Taylor in Valley of the Kings (1954) and Many Rivers to Cross (1955).

Back at Paramount, Parker starred opposite Charlton Heston in The Naked Jungle (1954), directed by Byron Haskin and produced by George Pal. MGM then cast her as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence in Interrupted Melody (1955), a role that earned her a third Academy Award nomination and which she later named her favorite film. That same year she appeared in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), directed by Otto Preminger and released through United Artists, playing Zosh opposite Frank Sinatra's heroin-addicted protagonist. The film was both a commercial and critical success.

Parker went on to appear in A Hole in the Head (1959) and, in one of her most widely seen later roles, played the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). She also appeared in The Oscar (1966). Eleanor Parker died on December 9, 2013, at the age of 91.