Larry Parks

Larry Parks ( born December 13, 1914 in Olathe, Kansas, † April 13, 1975 in Studio City, California; actually Samuel Klausman Lawrence Parks ) was an American film and theater actor.

Life

Larry Parks, who had both German and Irish ancestry, grew up in Joliet, Illinois, on, and had a personality marked by childhood diseases; he suffered, among other things rheumatic fever. In order to meet the wishes of his parents meet, he enrolled at the University of Illinois, and began to study medicine. However, he realized where he participated in theater groups soon his true passion - acting. He moved to New York City where he earned his living as an usher at Carnegie Hall and as a leader in Radio City, and performed on smaller stages, and so was hoping for a breakthrough. Also falls into this time - 1934 - his film debut in a supporting role of black and white film classic You Belong to Me 1937 he succeeded in theater the success hoped for, as he was seen in the play Golden Boy on Broadway. After further productions, including All the Living or Pure in Heart, it was the death of his father, the late 1930s, which prompted him to move back to his family in Chicago. For some Parks worked as a conductor for the New York Central Railroad until 1941, he received a film offer from Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles, and he therefore moved to California. It was the drama Mystery Ship, only his second film, the parks in Hollywood made ​​known.

In addition to his work in film, he stood still on theater stages, so that he commuted between Los Angeles and New York back and forth. In 1944, he learned from one of his performances, the musical actress Betty Garrett, whom he married in the same year. Both settled in Los Angeles, had signed a contract with MGM after Garrett.

It was the 1940s, which marked the zenith of Parks ' career. In 1946 he portrayed in The Jazz Singer the U.S. musician Al Jolson, and was nominated in 1947 for his performance in the Academy Award for Best Actor.

1951 Parks received a summons to appear before the Committee on Un-American Activities, abbreviated in the U.S. HUAC. He was accused of belonging to a cell of the Communist Party. Although he had nothing to reproach in this respect, and parks could also go through all the checks, he was unofficially put on the black list, which meant that a prohibition of all Hollywood studios for him. In 1952, after a year of delay, his last major Hollywood film in the American cinema: The sweet trap with Elizabeth Taylor. The film had already been produced in early 1951.

Parks as well as his wife Betty then founded a vaudeville theater, with which they tried in New York, but also later in London, to survive financially. In the late 1950s, as the controversy surrounding the park was somewhat abated, it nevertheless succeeded in once again on Broadway to take on small roles, so among other things in Bells Are Ringing, alongside Judy Holliday. He also stood in 1962 in the biopic Freud by director John Huston for the last time in front of the camera.

After that, Larry Parks withdrew into private life, which he dedicated to his wife Betty and their two sons, who later became a film actor Andrew Parks and the future music composer Garrett Parks. Parks died in 1975, aged 60 years, a heart attack. Larry Parks was the godfather of film actor Jeff Bridges.

Filmography (selection)

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