Lew Parker

Lew Parker, born Austin Lewis Jacobs on October 29, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, musical theatre, and television. The son of Lewis Jacobs, a vaudeville performer, Parker built a Broadway career that stretched from 1928 to 1972, encompassing more than a dozen productions across multiple decades.

Parker's stage work began with Rainbow in 1928 and continued through a string of musicals in the late 1920s and early 1930s, including Spring is Here and Heads Up!, both in 1929, and Girl Crazy in 1930. He returned to Broadway in 1936 with Red, Hot and Blue, and in 1945 took on a starring role in Are You With It?. The following year he appeared in the play The Front Page. His later Broadway credits included Ankles Aweigh in 1955, Mr. Wonderful in 1956, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1972.

On television, Parker became widely recognized for his recurring role as Lew Marie, the father of Marlo Thomas's character Ann Marie, on the series That Girl. He appeared in 63 episodes of the show between 1966 and 1971. That same year, 1966, he guest-starred on Gidget as Mr. Socrates, the proprietor of a hamburger restaurant called The Shaggy Dog, and on F Troop in the episode "The Ballot of Corporal Agarn," playing a mayoral candidate who travels west to secure a tied election. Parker also made appearances on The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy.

In 1955, Parker married actress Betty Kean, and the two remained together until his death. Parker died of cancer in New York City on October 27, 1972, two days before what would have been his 65th birthday. Betty Kean died on September 29, 1986, also from cancer.