In the seventies, Parks was an incredibly popular singer and actor on American television. He won the audience's love thanks to the cult series "Then Came Bronson", in which he played the lead role and the title song Long Lonesome Highway for a long time entrenched in the ranking of the most popular. Despite the recognition of the public, Michael Parks, due to his political beliefs and harsh statements, was blacklisted by Hollywood. For several years he disappeared from the big screen. The role of the dashing Texas Ranger in Quentin Tarantino's "From Dusk Till Dawn" became a new round in Parks' acting career and brought him worldwide fame.
Young years
Michael Parks (Harry Samuel Parks) was born in Corona, California on April 24, 1940 in a large family. His father, who worked as a truck driver, was the only breadwinner in the family. Therefore, starting from adolescence, Parks traveled around the country, moonlighting where he had to. Such a life made the young man earlyto mature. At the age of fifteen, he even got married, but the marriage did not last long. During his wanderings, Michael Parks joined the amateur theater, and as part of it toured California. In 1960, at one of the performances, the young talent was noticed by a CBS agent who was looking for young actors to participate in the company's television series. An agreement was signed with Parks, but due to his absurd nature, he got only episodic roles. However, in 1963, with such a role in the TV series Perry Mason, he attracted the attention of the viewer and producers.
Career takeoff
In 1966, Michael gets the role of Adam in the television series "Bible" based on some biblical stories. The work of the actor in this film received positive reviews from critics, and in 1969 Parks was offered the lead role in the television drama Then Came Bronson. His hero is an eternal wanderer, in search of the meaning of life, he travels all over America on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Along the way, Bronson meets different people, some he helps, others help him. But the main character's path to himself is as long and lonely as the title of the theme song Long Lonesome Highway, which Michael Parks performed in this TV movie. After the release of the series on the screens, the young actor literally woke up famous. His musical career also took off. From 1969 to 1970, Parks released three albums recorded at MGM Records.
Blacklist
The fall of an actor from the Hollywood Olympus was the sameswift as takeoff. The fact is that Parks, having a heightened sense of justice, did not hesitate to criticize the US ruling circles in public, moreover, he openly called on his fans to support George Wallace in the presidential election. Big Hollywood bosses did not approve of such free-thinking. In those years, actors were perceived as puppets of film companies, and had no right to such appeals. Therefore, Parks instantly found himself among those actors who were closed to large film studios.
Michael Parks Filmography
Director Larry Cohen was the first to break the ice, and in 1977 invited the disgraced actor to play one of the leading roles in his film The Personal File of John Edgar Hoover. Portraying Bobby Kennedy, Parks again managed to attract the attention of the audience and critics. In the same year, the films "Escape from Bogen County" and "Love and the Night Car Service" were released. Former popularity gradually began to return to the actor, and in 1986 the ABC channel invited him to take part in the television project Dynasty, where he played Philip Colby. To our viewer, Parks might first be remembered as drug dealer Jean Reno, which he played in the cult TV series Twin Peaks.
A new starting point in the actor's career, of course, was the role of Earl McGraw in Quentin Tarantino's film "From Dusk Till Dawn" in 1999. Work in this film and subsequent ones brought the actor worldwide fame and the love of the audience, which Michael Parks still uses to this day. The films of the famous franchise Kill Bill and Grindhouse also did not do withoutparticipation of the actor and his favorite character Earl McGraw. In 2011, Parks got the lead role in the thriller Red State, directed by Kevin Smith. The collaboration of the actor with Quentin Tarantino continued in the film Django Unchained in 2012. In 2014, he continued to work with director Kevin Smith, starring in the thriller Tusk. In the same year, the viewer could see his favorite actor in the drama Pilgrims by Tedd Turner, where he also played a leading role. 2016 for the 76-year-old actor was marked by work in the action movie Blood Father by Jean-Francois Richet.
To date, the 76-year-old actor has more than a hundred films and television shows to his credit, but is not going to stop there. Always young at heart and full of creative plans Michael Parks. The photo of the legendary actor in the article is a vivid confirmation of this.
