Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Fess Parker

Actor

Born - 16 August 1924, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Died - 18 March 2010

Big, soft-spoken, dark-haired, shambling Texan who hardly surfaced in film terms until the Disney studio cast him as Davy Crockett in a TV series, whose episodes were swiftly turned into two immensely popular films, Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier (1954) and Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1955). But the studio that made him also hampered his career, blocking offers to co-star with John Wayne in The Searchers and Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop. His distinctive drawl was first heard in Harvey (1950), and there were roles of varying sizes in Springfield Rifle (1952, supporting his idol, Gary Cooper), Thunder Over the Plains (1953), Them! (1954) and Battle Cry (1955), before Davy Crockett came along and sold a million coonskin caps to kids. For Disney, he also made Westward Ho! The Wagons (1956), Old Yeller (1957) and The Light in the Forest (1958), before freelancing, with less success, in The Jayhawkers (1959) and Hell is for Heroes (1962). He returned to buckskin action on TV with Daniel Boone (1964-70), before making Smoky (1966) and Climb an Angry Mountain (1972), his last before before becoming a successful hotelier and vintner in California. He and his wife Marcella celebrated their golden wedding two months before his death from age-related natural causes.