Michael Parks (born Harry Samuel Parks; April 24, 1940) is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in almost fifty films and has made frequent TV appearances, but is probably best known for his work in recent years with Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith as well as the 1969 television series Then Came Bronson.
Marlon Brando was going to star in "Wild seed", produced by Brando's father, but it was later decided that Brando was too old for the part and Parks was cast instead.
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Declined to cover "Mr. Tambourine Man" as the end title theme of "Then came Bronson".
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In the opening of "Then came Bronson" pilot, Bronson drives up to a red light in San Francisco and briefly chats with a commuter introducing Bronson's signature-phrase which he often uses in the episodes "Hang in there".
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Turned down the Bronson's pilot twice because he didn't like the script. They later rewrote it.
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Refused a role in a remake of Beau Geste. That conflict triggered the end of a long-term contract with Universal and left Parks out of work for two years, apart from a few made-for-TV movies.
Plays the lead, an aging, misguided NSA listener in indie thriller In ascolto (2006). [2006]
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Was one of five children of an itinerant laborer. Like the rest of his family, Parks drifted from job to job in his early teens, briefly marrying at age 16.
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Parks' second wife, a small-part actress named Jan Moriarty, took a fatal overdose of pills in 1964, less than two months after their marriage. He was briefly married at sixteen with Louise Johnson with which he had a daughter .In 1997 he married Oriana Parks with a ceremony without any attendants.
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His brother Jimmy drowned in 1968.
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The pilot of the series Then Came Bronson (1969) reflects and drew heavily on the background of Parks' own life story.
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Was discovered by Frank Silvera while acting in a play entitled "Compulsion" at age 18.
His father Harry was a baseball player. His son James is also an actor.
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Was a close friend of legendary director Jean Renoir.
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The official "Kill Bill" websites claim that he is "frequently cited by longtime fan Quentin Tarantino as the world's greatest living actor.".
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He played Earl McGraw, the police officer with bad puns, in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and then played Esteban Vinaio, the 80-year-old, smooth Mexican pimp who once was Bill's mentor in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004). This makes him only one of two actors to appear in both Kill Bill films playing different characters. The other person to play separate roles in both films is Chia-Hui Liu.
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Recorded a half-dozen country/blues/jazz albums in the late '60s and early '70s.
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Attempted to qualify for the 1972 Olympics as a miler, running a time of 4:06.
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Turned down an offer to play minor league baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates because he was making more money upholstering caskets.
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Prior to becoming an actor. his jobs included picking fruit, digging ditches, driving trucks and fighting forest fires.
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The theme song "Long Lonesome Highway" from Parks' TV series Then Came Bronson (1969), sung by Parks himself, was penned by James Hendricks, a Greenwich Village folksinger who was married to 'Mama Cass Elliot' of The Mamas and the Papas, not by Jimi Hendrix. The song became a Top 40 hit in 1970.
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Lived on a yacht in the Monterey, California, harbor in the early 1980s.
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Queen of Hollywood Blvd
2017
post-production
Chet Fuller
Other Fish
2016
Short completed
Grandpa
Boone
announced
Sheriff Hurley
Herstory
Short pre-production
Rabbi Rudich
The Summoning
announced
Newberry
Greater
2016
Leo
Blood Father
2016
Preacher
To No End: Twisted Knives
2015
Video short
Old Man
Red State
2015
Short
Cooper (voice)
Tusk
2014
Howard Howe
We Are What We Are
2013
Doc Barrow
Django Unchained
2012
The LeQuint Dickey Mining Co. Employee
Argo
2012
Jack Kirby
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
2011
Red State
2011
Abin Cooper
Street Poet
2010
Benny
Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball
2010
Video
Fritz Tremor
Satisfaction
2009/I
Short
The Duel Master
Noble Things
2008
Pete Collins
Maidenhead
2008
Dad
Three Priests
2008
Jacob
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
$1.3 Million
