Jameson Parker

Jameson Parker Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 18, 1947. He is the son of Jameson and Sydney Buchanan ({{nee}} Sullivan) Parker. His father had been general legal counsel for the Parker family steel mill, an investment analyst, and government attorney (working first with the Maryland Public Expenditure Council and later with the United States Naval Reserve). In 1947, he was in private practice, but about to embark on a career as a diplomat with the United States Department of State.

His mother was the daughter of Mark Sullivan Sr., a former editor of Collier's and later columnist with the New York Herald Tribune newspaper. She was a short story author (under a pen name), and a reporter for The Washington Post.{{cite news| title=Sydney Walling, Colonel Dames Member, Author| newspaper=The Washington Post| date=November 29, 1982| page=D6| access-date=January 13, 2017| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1982/11/29/sydney-walling-colonel-dames-member-author/071aba33-76f7-4468-a58b-bbe53c296377}} His parents eloped on June 8, 1933, and married in Rockville, Maryland.{{cite news| title=Miss Sullivan Wed to Jameson Parker| newspaper=The Washington Post| date=June 9, 1933| page=20}}

Jameson Parker Sr. died in 1972. His widow married her husband's Harvard Law School friend, Lewis Metcalfe Walling, a former New Deal labor attorney, in 1974.{{cite news| last=Saxon| first=Wolfgang| title=L. Metcalf Walling, 88, Who Helped Set Labor Policy in New Deal| work=The New York Times| date=January 26, 1997| access-date=January 13, 2017| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/26/nyregion/l-metcalf-walling-88-who-helped-set-labor-policy-in-new-deal.html}}

Jameson Jr. attended St. Albans School, Washington, D.C., and a Swiss prep school.[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/06/04/90109645.pdf "Anne Davis Betrothed to Francis Parker 2d"], The New York Times; June 4, 1969; accessed March 4, 2012 He studied drama at Beloit College in Wisconsin.[http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/jameson-parker/bio/155576 "Jameson Parker: Biography"], TV Guide accessed March 4, 2012.

At Beloit College, he acted in student theater productions, and, while living in Washington, D.C., he landed a job with a production of The Great White Hope at the Arena Stage and then acted in theatrical productions of Caligula and Indians. After completing his degree at Beloit College in 1971, he performed in dinner theater and summer stock in the Washington, D.C., area.

File:One Life to Live cast 1977.JPG (1977). Front, L–R: Jameson Parker and Teri Keane. Back: Julia Montgomery and Farley Granger]]

In 1972, he moved to New York City, where he secured several television commercials and appeared in off-Broadway plays. He was cast as Dale Robinson in the daytime drama Somerset and created the role of Brad Vernon on One Life to Live. During this period, Parker guest-starred on the ABC series Family and Hart to Hart.

Parker made his motion picture debut in The Bell Jar (1979) and starred in A Small Circle of Friends (1980), in which he played one of three radical college students during the 1960s.Canby, Vincent: [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/03/12/111140302.pdf "Film: Small Circle of 3 College Friends"], The New York Times, March 12, 1980, accessed March 4, 2012 The United Artists film received a limited theatrical release and grossed under $1 million."50 Top-Grossing Films". (Week ending March 19, 1980). Variety, March 22, 1980 Another film from early in his acting career was the controversial White Dog (1982).

In addition, he played the leads in several CBS television movies: Women at West Point (1979),Maslin, Janet: [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/02/27/121007198.pdf "TV: Movie Tells Story Of West Point Women"], The New York Times, February 27, 1979, accessed March 4, 2012 Anatomy of a Seduction (1979),O'Connor, John J.: [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/05/08/111021685.pdf "TV: Film of an Affair, Anatomy of a Seduction"], The New York Times, May 8, 1979, accessed March 4, 2012 The Gathering II (1979), The Promise of Love (1980), Callie and Son (1981), and A Caribbean Mystery (1983).

He became well known by co-starring as A.J. Simon in Simon & Simon from 1981 to 1989. Thanks to the hit show's popularity, in 1985, Beloit awarded him its Distinguished Service Citation.Beloit College: [http://www.beloit.edu/alumni/awards/dsc/jameson_parker/ "F. Jameson Parker II'], accessed March 4, 2012 With his Simon & Simon co-star Gerald McRaney he appeared in the theatrical movie Jackals, which Parker co-produced.[https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/19/movies/film-american-justice.html Nina Darnton, "Film: American Justice"] The New York Times, September 19, 1986, accessed March 4, 2012 After completing this movie, he returned to Beloit College to star in a live summer stock theatrical production as Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In 1987, starred alongside Donald Pleasence in John Carpenter's horror movie Prince of Darkness.

Parker guest-starred on the CBS series Walker, Texas Ranger as a corrupt cop. He appeared in the television movies Who Is Julia? (1986), Dead Before Dawn (1993), and Violation of Trust (1991). He guest starred on the sitcom Major Dad with his Simon & Simon co-star Gerald McRaney.

Parker's last known acting work was in 2003–2004, after a four-year hiatus, when he appeared in four episodes of JAG. In 2003, he co-hosted the show A Dog's Life with wife Darleen on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN).{{cite web |url=https://www.simon-and-simon.info/html/jameson_parker_on_tv.html|title=A Dog's Life Coming to OLN in July 2003|publisher=www.simonandsimon.info|access-date=May 29, 2022}} In 2009, Parker did voice-over work as the narrator for the documentary Endangered Species: California Fish and Game Wardens. He became a freelance writer for a variety of hard-copy and on-line magazines and wrote several books, among them the biography An Accidental Cowboy about his life after acting.{{cite web |url=http://www.readjamesonparker.com/biography |title=Biography |last=Parker |first=Jameson |website=readjamesonparker.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414022836/http://www.readjamesonparker.com/biography|archive-date=April 14, 2021|access-date=May 29, 2022|url-status=usurped}}{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jameson-parker/an-accidental-cowboy/ |title=Smart, disarming, and forgivably sentimental. |publisher=Kirkus Reviews |date=August 15, 2003 |access-date=May 29, 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780312310240 |title=An Accidental Cowboy |publisher=Publishers Weekly |access-date=May 29, 2022}}

Parker has written five books:

• {{cite book| last1=Parker| first1=Jameson| title=An Accidental Cowboy| date=2003|publisher=ebook| isbn=978-0984981236}} recounts his life after Simon & SimonSwan, James A.: [http://old.nationalreview.com/swan/swan200310020817.asp "A True Hero's Journey"] ESPN Outdoor, October 2, 2003 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130311084232/http://old.nationalreview.com/swan/swan200310020817.asp |date=March 11, 2013 }}, accessed March 4, 2012
• {{cite book| last1=Parker| first1=Jameson| title=To Absent Friends: A Collection of Stories of the Dogs We Miss| year=2003| publisher=Willow Creek Press| location=Minocqua, WI| isbn=978-1572237063}}
• {{cite book| last1=Parker| first1=Jameson| title=American Riff| year=2012| publisher=ebook| isbn=978-0984981298}}
• {{cite book| last1=Parker| first1=Jameson| title=The Horseman at Midnight| year=2012| publisher=ebook| isbn=978-0984981267}}
• {{cite book| last1=Parker| first1=Jameson| title=Dancing with the Dead| year=2016| publisher=BearManor Media| isbn=978-1593939946}}

Parker has been married three times. On July 19, 1969, he married Anne Taylor Davis in Fairfax County, Virginia, with whom he has one daughter.Virginia Marriage Records, file 69 024277 The two divorced on August 7, 1975, in Alexandria, Virginia.Virginia Divorce Records, file 75-010115 In 1976, Parker married Bonnie Dottley in New York City; the couple have three children.[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLS2-BFDM New York City Marriage Licenses Index, 1950-1995] They divorced in 1992. He married Darleen Carr on June 18, 1992.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

On October 1, 1992, Parker was shot in the left armpit and right arm by a neighbor during a verbal altercation concerning dog waste. He made a full recovery, and the neighbor was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to nine years in prison.{{cite news| last=Mrozek| first=Thom| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-12-11-me-860-story.html| title=Studio City Man Gets 9 Years in Shooting of Actor Parker| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| date=December 11, 1993| access-date=August 3, 2019}}

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Category:1947 births

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male soap opera actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:Beloit College alumni

Category:Living people

Category:American shooting survivors

Category:Male actors from Baltimore

Category:St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.) alumni