RIP Fess Parker

WishingOnAStar

WishingOnAStar

New Member
Original Poster
I just saw online that TMZ is reporting that Fess Parker has passed away. Most noted for playing Davy Crockett, Fess was an extremely talented actor and Disney legend. According to a rep, he passed from natural causes. He was 85 years old.
 
Wilt Dasney

Wilt Dasney

Well-Known Member
Shame to hear that, if true. Davy Crockett was a huge sensation in the '50s. Every kid wanted a coonskin cap in those days.

As I recall, Fess Parker appeared at Disneyland in the early days, playing Davy Crockett in Frontierland. Absolutely a Disney legend.
 
WishingOnAStar

WishingOnAStar

New Member
Original Poster
Try Google News:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2010/03/fess-parker-tv-frontiersman-di.html

Fess Parker, TV Frontiersman, Dies


A nation doffs its coonskin caps to Fess Parker, who starred on the TV series "Davy Crockett" and "Daniel Boone" in the 1950s and 1960s and who died today at his home in the Santa Ynez Valley, calif., according to his managers. He was 85.
Mr. Parker, a native Texas, left show business for a career in business and real estate in the 1970s. He opened mobile home parks and a luxury hotel in California and started Fess Parker Winery.
 
Brian_WDW74

Brian_WDW74

Member
Wilt Dasney said:
As I recall, Fess Parker appeared at Disneyland in the early days, playing Davy Crockett in Frontierland. Absolutely a Disney legend.
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Yes. And he was honored with a window in DL's Frontierland, the first ever awarded outside of Main Street.

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RIP, Fess.
 
Wilt Dasney

Wilt Dasney

Well-Known Member
The LA Times has a good writeup: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-fess-parker19-2010mar19,0,3352776.story

A snippet on the huge popularity of Davy Crockett:

Parker was a struggling 29-year-old actor in 1954, with rugged, boyish good looks and a soft Texas drawl, when Walt Disney was looking for someone to play the lead in a three-part saga about Crockett. The three hourlong shows were scheduled to air during the premiere season of Disney's weekly "Disneyland" TV show, which began on ABC that fall.

James Arness was one of the many actors considered for the role. But although Disney watched Arness during a screening of the science-fiction thriller "Them!" another young actor in a small part caught his eye: the 6-foot-6 Parker.

"Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter," the first of the initial three Crockett adventures, aired on "Disneyland" on Dec. 15, 1954, and unexpectedly turned Parker into an overnight sensation.

TV's "King of the Wild Frontier" also touched off a merchandising frenzy: 10-million coonskin caps were sold, along with toy "Old Betsy" rifles, buckskin shirts, T-shirts, coloring books, guitars, bath towels, bedspreads, wallets -- anything with the Crockett name attached.

Viewers also fell in love with the show's catchy theme song. Bill Hayes' version of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" soared to No. 1 on the hit parade and remained there for 13 weeks. And there were a couple of dozen other recordings of the song, including those by Tennessee Ernie Ford, Burl Ives, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians and Parker himself.

"It was an explosion beyond anyone's comprehension," Parker recalled decades later. "The power of television, which was still new, was demonstrated for the first time."

Even Disney was taken by surprise.

"We had no idea what was going to happen to 'Crockett,' " he later said. "Why, by the time the first show finally got on the air, we were already shooting the third one and calmly killing Davy off at the Alamo. It became one of the biggest overnight hits in TV history, and there we were with just three films and a dead hero."

The studio quickly rebounded, rushing two Crockett "prequel" adventures into production for the second season of "Disneyland" and editing the first three episodes into a feature film, "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier," which was released in May 1955. The two later TV segments, again featuring Buddy Ebsen as Crockett's sidekick George Russel, were turned into a 1956 feature film, "Davy Crockett and the River Pirates."

During a cross-country personal appearance tour in the summer of 1955, as many as 20,000 fans reportedly showed up to greet the actor when he landed at each city's airport.
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Atomicmickey

Atomicmickey

Well-Known Member
A true Disney legend . . . and in recent years, maker of some very delicious wine!

Sad to hear of this.

Yep, he was there for Disneyland opening . . . it's on the Disney DVD that has the special for opening day.

King of the Wild Frontier, RIP.
 
JimboJones123

JimboJones123

Well-Known Member
I tip my Skin Hat!

Will Hoop Dee Doo be dedicated to Parker this week...month...heck, I think it should be the rest of 2010. Respect being what it should be and all.
 
prberk

prberk

Well-Known Member
I truly appreciate this man and his characters. He seemed like a true gentleman on and off the screen. His TV appearances and documentary discussions in the Special Features of the Old Yeller DVD just helped to confirm that.

In fact I really appreciated his short but pivotal role in Old Yeller more than his Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone characters. More fathers should see that performance, and the world would be a better place. (And, no, it is not out-dated. Watch it again, you will see how a father grows a boy into a man.)
 
T

timeman

Active Member
The thing that makes it even more sad is that now his widow will never want to celebrate her own birthday again as now her birthday is the date of his death. Here is an excerpt from the AP newswire about his death.

Family spokeswoman Sao Anash said Parker, who was also TV's Daniel Boone and later a major California winemaker and developer, died at his Santa Ynez Valley home. His death came on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.


Parker was coherent and speaking with family just minutes before his death, said Anash.
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:(

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csaguy

csaguy

Member
Bye

I was thinking of him last weekend. He'll be missed.
He does have a nice winery too. I'll lift one for Fess tonight.
 

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