Barnett Parker

Known for

Popular titles

Biography

A closer look

Read full biography

Within the British colony of expatriate actors in Hollywood during the 1930's, Barnett Parker, born 11 September 1886, in Batley, Yorkshire, England, was among the most stereotypical. Harrowgate College-educated, straight-backed, balding and well-intoned, Parker caricatured a multitude of unctuous, stiff-upper-lip butlers, man-servants or waiters, though his performances could, at times, verge on the brink of being camp. When driven to frustration his characters commonly resorted to incoherent twitter or wild gesticulation. Parker was trained under Marie Tempest and George Alexander in England. He first acted on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre as Wilfred Tavish in Arthur Wing Pinero's "The "Mind the Paint" Girl" in 1912. He was well served with further roles in hit plays like "Hobson's Choice" (1915), "Artists and Models" (1924) and "The Red Robe" (1928). He was at first prone to reject film offers, professing to favor acting on stage. Nonetheless, the celluloid medium eventually beckoned, enticing him to sign with the East Coast-based studio Thanhouser in 1915. He worked in films during the daytime (while treading the boards at night) and quickly landed a plum role as a weak socialite, rescuing Gladys Hulette in Prudence, the Pirate (1916). He was seldom thereafter afforded the opportunity for heroic acts. During the 1930's, he was primarily in demand for small roles as dandified or 'silly ass' Britishers, giving value for money in films like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Personal Property (1937), Live, Love and Learn (1937) and Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937). Looking rather older than his years, Barnett Parker died at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles after multiple heart attacks on August 5, 1941.

Filmography

Movies and shows, newest first

2004
Walt Disney's Fables - Vol.6
Movie Dragon (voice) (archive sound) (uncredited)
1964
The Big Parade of Comedy
Movie Arthur Trevelyan in 'Personal Property' (arch. foot.) (uncred.)
1941
New Wine
Movie The Duke
1941
Kisses for Breakfast
Movie Phillips
1941
The Reluctant Dragon
Movie Dragon (segment "The Reluctant Dragon") (voice)
1941
A Man Betrayed
Movie George
1941
Tall, Dark and Handsome
Movie Quentin
1940
Love Thy Neighbor
Movie George - Fred's Chauffeur
1940
One Night in the Tropics
Movie Thompson, Steve's Butler (uncredited)
1940
Hullabaloo
Movie Samuel Stephens
1940
La Conga Nights
Movie Hammond
1940
He Married His Wife
Movie Huggins
1939
At the Circus
Movie Whitcomb
1939
Babes in Arms
Movie William
1939
Hotel for Women
Movie Photographer
1939
She Married a Cop
Movie Bekins, the Butler