Michael Parks.
Michael Parks was born in California in 1940. He made his acting debut in 1958 in Alfred Hitchcock’s television show. His film career tookoff in 1965 with “Wild Seed” opposite Celia Kaye. He also made “Bus Riley’s Back in Town” with Ann-Margret. In 1966 he went to the U.K. to make “The Idol” opposite Jennifer Jones. In 1969 he had his own series about a biker entitled “Then Came Bronson”. His career has has a comeback in recent years working with newer directors such as Quentin Tarentino.
IMDB entry:
Michael Parks was born on April 24, 1940 in Corona, California, USA as Harry Samuel Parks. He is an actor, known for Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Django Unchained (2012). He is married to Oriana. He was previously married to Carolyn Kay Carson, Jan Moriarty and Louise M. Johnson.The theme song “Long Lonesome Highway” from Parks’ TV series Then Came Bronson(1969), sung by Parks himself, was penned by James Hendricks, a Greenwich Village folksinger who was married to ‘Mama Cass Elliot’ of The Mamas and the Papas, not byJimi Hendrix.
The song became a Top 40 hit in 1970.Prior to becoming an actor. his jobs included picking fruit, digging ditches, driving trucks and fighting forest fires.Turned down an offer to play minor league baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates because he was making more money upholstering caskets.
Attempted to qualify for the 1972 Olympics as a miler, running a time of 4:06.Recorded a half-dozen country/blues/jazz albums in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
He played Earl McGraw, the police officer with bad puns, in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and then played Esteban Vinaio, the 80-year-old, smooth Mexican pimp who once was Bill’s mentor in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004).
This makes him only one of two actors to appear in both Kill Bill films playing different characters. The other person to play separate roles in both films is Chia-Hui Liu.The official “Kill Bill” websites claim that he is “frequently cited by longtime fan Quentin Tarantino as the world’s greatest living actor.”.
Was a close friend of legendary director Jean Renoir.Father of actor James Parks.
He has played the character of Earl McGraw in three separate films involving Quentin Tarantino: From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Grindhouse (2007) (both Death Proof (2007) and Planet Terror (2007)).He was a pall bearer for Lenny Bruce.Was discovered by Frank Silvera while acting in a play entitled “Compulsion” at age 18.
The pilot of the series Then Came Bronson (1969) reflects and drew heavily on the background of Parks’ own life story.Was one of five children of an itinerant laborer.
Like the rest of his family, Parks drifted from job to job in his early teens, briefly marrying at age 16.Plays the lead, an aging, misguided NSA listener in indie thriller In ascolto (2006).Filming a new movie Julian Po (1997) with Christian Slater and Robin Tunney.
Guardian obituary in 2017.
Michael Parks, who has died aged 77, was a softly spoken character actor who enjoyed a prolific and chequered film and television career, largely in the exploitation genre. In middle age he was adopted as something of a mascot by the hip directors Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith. “Michael was, and will likely for ever remain, the best actor I’ve ever known,” said Smith, who directed him as a menacing preacher in Red State (2011) and as a sinister seaman with a bizarre walrus fixation in Tusk (2014). Both roles were written especially for him by Smith, who said: “He will take a page of dialogue and deliver it in a different way than anybody else.”
Parks had appeared earlier as the mobster and drug-runner Jean Renault in David Lynch’s cult television series Twin Peaks (1990–91), but his career resurgence really began after a scene-stealing appearance in the vampire movie From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), directed by Rodriguez and written by Tarantino, who also starred in the film alongside George Clooney. “His naturalism was just amazing to watch,” said Rodriguez. “You would roll the cameras and watch the magic happen
As the ornery Texas ranger Earl McGraw, he was shot dead by Tarantino’s character in the first 10 minutes, but both directors later cast him as McGraw in other films. He returned in Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Death Proof, and in Rodriguez’s Planet Terror (both 2007); the last two titles were released in the US as the double-bill package Grindhouse and internationally as separate titles. He also played an ageing Mexican pimp in Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004). With his profile raised, he went on to appear in prestigious, award-winning films such as the western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and the hostage drama Argo (2012). Tarantino cast him in his slavery thriller Django Unchained (also 2012).
Born in Corona, south-east of Los Angeles, Parks worked in various jobs and was at one stage invited to play minor league baseball, an offer he turned down because it paid less than his job at that time, upholstering coffins. He was discovered by the actor Frank Silvera while performing with a theatre group in Hermosa Beach, on Los Angeles’ South Bay coast, in 1958. He then worked prolifically in television from 1960 onwards, in series including Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, and the Alfred Hitchcock
In the drama Bus Riley’s Back in Town (1965), he played the title character, a young navy veteran struggling with civilian life. The New York Times remarked on his “considerable charm and appeal” but complained about his “James Dean mannerisms”. The same charges were levelled at his performance in The Idol (1966), a melodrama in which he played a young man who seduces his friend’s mother (Jennifer Jones). Dean, to whom he bore some resemblance, was a name routinely invoked by reviewers, and Parks even claimed that the more famous actor’s reputation for surliness had a bad effect on his own prospects. “He could be mean, and people who knew him said [about me], ‘Another James Dean’, without even knowing me.”
John Huston directed Parks as Adam in The Bible (also 1966); in the same year, Parks was said to be one of the pall-bearers at Lenny Bruce’s funeral. He travelled the US on a motorcycle as the hero of the television series Then Came Bronson (1969-70) and scored Billboard chart success with his recording of the theme song, Long Lonesome Highway. He had a successful music career, recording a series of albums in the late 1960s and early 70s and appearing on the Johnny Cash Show. But his acting career hit a bump after a contractual dispute with Universal led to his suspension. His response was to go to Mexico “and chop wood for a living”.
He returned to television in 1973 and appeared occasionally in movies, among them North Sea Hijack (1980) starring Roger Moore, and the thriller Storyville (1992) with James Spader. Most of his work, including a recurring role on the Dynasty spin-off The Colbys (1987), was confined to television, at least until Rodriguez and Tarantino revived interest in him. His last completed film was the crime drama The Queen of Hollywood Blvd (2017).
He is survived by his wife, Oriana, and his son, James, an actor who has also appeared in several Tarantino movies.