Ellen Parker

Ellen Parker, born September 30, 1949, in Paris, France, is an American actress whose career has spanned stage, television, and film. A graduate of Bard College, she is based in New York City and has built much of her professional life around New York stage work. She is perhaps most widely recognized for her seven-year run as Maureen Reardon Bauer on the CBS daytime drama Guiding Light.

Parker's Broadway career extended from 1974 to 1989 and included four productions: Equus, Plenty, Strangers, and The Heidi Chronicles. Her appearance in The Heidi Chronicles was part of the original production of Wendy Wasserstein's play. Plenty, written by David Hare, was among her other notable stage credits during this period.

On television, Parker's first appearance came in a PBS adaptation of Wasserstein's Uncommon Women and Others. Her first significant television role followed in 1983, when she portrayed Ethel Kennedy in the miniseries Kennedy. She later appeared on Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Education of Max Bickford, and Ed. In film, she had a role in Kramer vs. Kramer.

Parker joined Guiding Light in 1986, taking over the role of Maureen Bauer from Ellen Dolan. During her tenure, the show's long-established matriarchal figure, Bert Bauer, was written out following the death of actress Charita Bauer, and Maureen assumed that central family role. In 1993, executive producer Jill Farren Phelps decided to kill the character, a decision driven by unfavorable focus group responses. Maureen died in a car accident after discovering her husband Ed's infidelity, and Parker's portrayal of the character's final storyline earned her a Daytime Emmy Award that same year. The decision to end the character proved controversial among viewers. Parker subsequently returned to the series in flashback sequences and as Maureen's spirit in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, and 2005.

Parker and her former husband, physician Dr. Mack Lipkin, have one daughter, whom they adopted from China.