Parks, Larry

Born in Kansas , he spent his childhood and youth in Illinois , where he graduated from high school, and then studied at the University of Illinois as a medic. Parks performed his first roles in productions of amateur theaters, and in 1941 he signed a contract with Columbia Pictures for filming a movie. In 1946, after five years of filming in secondary roles, the actor got the main role in the biographical film "Jolson's History", which earned him an Oscar nomination. Three years later, Parks again played Al Jolson in the movie "Jolson Sings Again", which was also a great success with the public.

In 1951, the actor was called to testify at the Commission to Investigate Anti-American Activities under the threat of being blacklisted in Hollywood . At the meeting, Parks revealed the names of his colleagues suspected of sympathy for communism, but still ended up on the black list ^[1] . After that, his acting career began to decline sharply, and in the following years, Parks starred in only three films and appeared in small roles on television a couple of times. He performed his last film role in 1962 in the film Freud: Secret Passion , where he played Dr. Joseph Breyer .

The subsequent years of his life, Larr Parks, along with his wife, actress Betty Garrett, rented real estate in Los Angeles , which brought them considerable income. Together with her, he occasionally appeared on field tours of Broadway shows and in local theater productions ^[2] . From his marriage to Garrett, Parks had two sons: actor Andrew Parks and composer Garrett Parks. The actor was also the godfather of Jeff Bridges . Larry Parks died of a heart attack in the spring of 1975 at the age of 60. Betty Garrett survived her husband for 36 years and died in 2011 at the age of 91.

• Garrett, Betty. Betty Garrett and Other Songs: A Life on Stage and Screen. - Lanham, Maryland: Madison Books, 1998 .-- ISBN 1-56833-098-7 .

• Larry Parks on the Internet Broadway Database