Willard Parker

As New York-born Worster Von Eps, he was a meter reader who turned professional tennis player but, in 1937, at the age of 25, he parlayed his fair-haired good looks and obvious athleticism into an acting career and changed his name to an easier-sounding marquee moniker, 'Willard Parker' (qv). After a number of uncredited film roles and a couple of appearances on the Broadway stage with "Johnny Belinda" (1940) and "Lady in the Dark" (1943), he was signed by Columbia in the 1940s and moved into "B" movie leads and co-leads. A reliable player, most of his roles, which fell into the action adventure category, went by unnoticed, including the swashbuckling film _The Fighting Guardsman (1946)_ (qv), and the western actioneers _Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949)_ (qv), _Apache Drums (1951)_ (qv), _The Great Jesse James Raid (1953)_ (qv), _Lone Texan (1959)_ (qv) and his "Cole Younger" in _Young Jesse James (1960)_ (qv). He also had a secondary non-singing role in his best-known movie, playing a bombastic Texan vying for the affections of 'Kathryn Grayson' (qv) in the musical _Kiss Me Kate (1953)_ (qv). In the 1950s, Willard developed a semi-strong following partnered with 'Harry Lauter' (qv) in the TV action show, _Tales of the Texas Rangers (1955)_ (qv) (1955-1959). He eventually retired to sell real estate. Married twice, his second wife was beautiful blonde actress 'Virginia Field' (qv), who appeared with him in the British sci-fi flick, _The Earth Dies Screaming (1964)_ (qv). They had no children together, but Willard did have a son by his previous marriage to former stage actress 'Marion Pierce' (qv). In 1974, he suffered a stroke. He died of heart failure in his 80s.::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net