Michael Parks Net Worth

Interesting Facts about Michael Parks

1. Lived on a yacht in the Monterey, California, harbor in the early 1980s.
2. 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 Cass Elliot of The Mamas and the Papas, not by Jimi Hendrix. The song became a Top 40 hit in 1970.
3. Prior to becoming an actor. his jobs included picking fruit, digging ditches, driving trucks and fighting forest fires.
4. Turned down an offer to play minor league baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates because he was making more money upholstering caskets.
5. Attempted to qualify for the 1972 Olympics as a miler, running a time of 4:06.
6. Recorded a half-dozen country/blues/jazz albums in the late '60s and early '70s.
7. 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.
8. The official "Kill Bill" websites claim that he is "frequently cited by longtime fan Quentin Tarantino as the world's greatest living actor.".
9. Was a close friend of legendary director Jean Renoir.
10. He played the character of Earl McGraw in three separate films involving Quentin Tarantino: From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Grindhouse (2007) (both Death Proof (2007) and Planet Terror (2007)).
11. He was a pall bearer for Lenny Bruce.
12. Was discovered by Frank Silvera while acting in a play entitled "Compulsion" at age 18.
13. The pilot movie of the series Then Came Bronson (1969) is based on the life of Birney Jarvis, the real Bronson and is credited in the movie as Assistant to the producer. Birney Jarvis initials were reversed for the character name Jim Bronson.
14. Michael Parks was one of five siblings whose father was a baseball player. Michael's brother, Jimmy, drowned in 1968. Michael drifted from job to job in his early teens. His son, James (named for his late uncle), also became an actor.
15. 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.
16. Played the lead, an aging, misguided NSA listener in indie thriller In ascolto (2006). [2006]
17. Filming a new movie Julian Po (1997) with Christian Slater and Robin Tunney. [1996]
18. 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.
19. Turned down the Then Came Bronson (1969) pilot twice because he didn't like the script. They later rewrote it.
20. Declined to cover "Mr. Tambourine Man" as the end title theme of Then Came Bronson (1969).