- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLois May Green
- Height5′ 3″ (1.60 m)
- Jean Parker was born Lois Mae Green in 1915. Her father was Lewis Green, a gunsmith and hunter, and her mother was Pearl Melvina Burch (later known professionally as Mildred Brenner), one of 18 children of a pioneer family that came to Montana from Missouri and Iowa. Jean's maternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister.
Parker was an accomplished gymnast and dancer, and was adopted by the Spickard family of Pasadena during her formative years when both her father and mother were unemployed during the Great Depression. As Lois Green, she entered a poster-painting contest and won for portraying Father Time. Ida Koverman, assistant to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, heard that a pretty teenage girl had won the contest; she contacted the would-be starlet, and had Mayer offer her an MGM contract.
Parker made several important films in her career, including The Ghost Goes West (1935) with Robert Donat; Sequoia (1934) with Russell Hardie, shot in the Sequoia National Forest near Springville, California; Little Women (1933) with Joan Bennett and Katharine Hepburn; Operator 13 (1934) with Marion Davies; and many other films.
After several successful cross-country trips entertaining injured servicemen during World War II, Parker wed and divorced Curt Grotter of the Braille Institute in Los Angeles; and moved on to New York to star in the play "Loco". She also starred on Broadway in "Burlesque" with Bert Lahr, and in the hit "Born Yesterday", filling in for Judy Holliday. Parker's fourth and last husband, actor Robert Lowery, played opposite her as Brock in the play for a short stint. By this marriage, Parker bore her only child, a son, Robert Lowery Hanks.
Parker died on November 30, 2005 at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, aged 90, from a stroke. She was survived by her son and two granddaughters, Katie and Nora Hanks.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Robert Sieger
- SpousesRobert Lowery(May 29, 1951 - December 26, 1971) (his death, 1 child)Curtis Grotter(August 25, 1944 - December 29, 1949) (divorced)Douglas Dawson(February 14, 1941 - July 8, 1943) (divorced)George MacDonald(March 22, 1936 - January 22, 1940) (divorced)
- ChildrenRobert Lowery Hanks II
- ParentsLewis GreenMelvina Burch
- Her precise enunciation
- Her mother (then known as Mildred Brenner) worked at MGM in the set department, and created magnificent flowers, trees and other greenery for such notable films as National Velvet (1944), Forbidden Planet (1956), Raintree County (1957) and others.
- Husband Robert Lowery, as a gag, introduced Jean to Sally Stanford, notorious California madam, as a prospective "house girl".
- As the winner of an art poster competition celebrating the 1932 Olympic Games (to be held in Los Angeles), Jean was invited to be one of the models decorating the float in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade.
- She died of complications from a stroke she suffered at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. She lived there from 1998 until her death.
- Her fourth husband, Robert Lowery, filed for divorce on September 10, 1957, after six years after marriage, but it was never finalized before his death 14 years later on December 16, 1971, from heart failure at the age of 58.
- Acting is truly a glorious and noble profession. When anyone can give other people a few hours of escape or enchantment away from the ills of the world and their own personal lives, that's a very worthwhile occupation.
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