Eleanor Jean Parker

Eleanor Jean Parker (June 26, 1922 – December 9, 2013)

She was an actress who appeared in some 80 movies and television series. An actress of notable versatility, she was called Woman of a Thousand Faces by Doug McClelland, author of a biography of Parker by the same title. At age 18, Parker was signed by Warner Brothers in 1941. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress in the 1950s, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of "the Baroness" in The Sound of Music (1965). She originally stayed in support roles for Crime by Night (1944) and The Last Ride (1944), then was given the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (1944), replacing Ida Lupino. She was considered enough of a "name" to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (1944). Parker later said the "big break" of her career was when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (1945). Seen in 1959's "A Hole in the Head" and the 1961 "Return to Peyton Place", she began appearing on the small screen and earned a 1963 Emmy nomination for the medical drama "The Eleventh Hour"; cast as the jealous Baroness in "The Sound of Music", she was praised for her part in an all-time blockbuster. Continuing to work in cinema, television, and, occasionally, the theater, she appeared on such shows as "Bracken's World", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "Hawaii Five-O", "The Love Boat", "Fantasy Island", and "Murder, She Wrote", was last seen on the big screen in the 1979 flop "Sunburn", and earned her final credit with the 1991 television movie "Dead on the Money".

Eleanor Parker died on December 9, 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91.