Eleanor Parker, “The Sound of Music” Actress, Dies at 91
by Unni Narayanan
Eleanor Parker, who was nominated for Academy Awards three times for her portrayals of strong-willed female characters, and played a scheming baroness in “The Sound of Music”, has died at the age of 91.
Parker passed away Monday morning due to complications from pneumonia, said family friend Richard Gale. “She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her children at a medical facility near her home in Palm Springs,” Gale added.
Parker was nominated for Academy Awards in 1950, 1951, and 1955, but then saw her career begin to wane during the early 1960s. Her last memorable role came in 1965's “The Sound of Music”, in which she played the scheming baroness that loses Christopher Plummer to Julie Andrews’ character.
“Eleanor Parker was and is one of the most beautiful ladies I have ever known,” said Plummer in a statement. “Both as a person and as a beauty. I hardly believe the sad news for I was sure she was enchanted and would live forever.”
Parker worked sparsely after that, appearing in small rolls in films and on television shows such as “Fantasy Island”, “Murder She Wrote”, and “The Love Boat”. She also starred in the short-running television series “Bracken’s World.”
“I’m primarily a character actress,” she said in a 1988 interview, explaining why she never achieved the stardom of so many of her co-stars. “I’ve portrayed so many diverse individuals on the screen that my own personality never emerged.”
Like William Holden, Robert Preston, Dustin Hoffman and others, Parker was discovered at the Pasadena Playhouse. She was then signed to a contract with Warner Bros., where she played only in minor roles, until the studio began to recognize her dramatic depth, and then casted her as Mildred Rodgers in the remake of “Of Human Bondage.” The Somerset Maugham story had made Bette Davis a star 12 years before. On Parker’s first day of filming, Davis sent her flowers and a note proclaiming, “I hope Mildred does as much for your career as she did for mine.” However, the film ended up flopping, and Parker was again relegated to mediocre roles until her breakthrough performance as an inmate in a brutal prison in the 1950 film “Caged.” The role brought Parker her first Oscar nomination, for best actress.
Her second came the following year as Kirk Douglas’s frustrated wife in “Detective Story.”
Her career fully blossomed with such follow-up films as “Scaramouche” with Stewart Granger, “Above and Beyond” with Robert Taylor, “Escape from Fort Bravo” with Holden, “Valley of the Kings” with Taylor, and “The Naked Jungle” with Charlton Heston.
She took on one of her most challenging roles in 1955 in “Interrupted Melody,” portraying opera star Marjorie Lawrence, who continued her career after contracting polio. Faced with having to lip-sync nine arias in three languages, she holed up in a Lake Arrowhead cabin for two weeks and played records eight to 10 hours a day.
The result: her third Oscar nomination.
Parker’s first three marriages ended in divorce: to Navy dentist Fred L. Losse; producer Bert Friedlob, which resulted in three children, Susan, Sharon and Richard; and painter Paul Clemens, with whom she had a son, actor Paul Clemens. Her 1966 marriage to Shubert Theater manager Raymond Hirsch ended with his death in 2001.
