Fess Parker Net Worth

Fess Parker's Quotes

• There have been several turning points in my life, but the most important one came the day I stepped before the cameras as Davy Crockett. The way I look at things, a man's life story isn't his alone, but it belongs to a lot of people who have influenced him and done things for him that he can never repay.
• I guess you could call me plain. I don't go in for show. There isn't anything I want too much, except to be a good actor.
• I left the business after 22 years. It was time to leave Hollywood. I came along at a time when I'm starting out with Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Sterling Hayden and Gregory Peck. Who needed a guy running around in a coonskin cap?
• I'm six feet five. The real Crockett? Well, as nearly as I can make out, he was a little under six feet.

Interesting Facts about Fess Parker

1. Graduate of the University of Texas at Austin - BA 1950.
2. Played college football at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, TX in the 1940s before transferring to the University of Texas-Austin.
3. Parker was named a Disney Legend in 1991.
4. Discovered by Adolphe Menjou who was a guest artist at the University of Texas while Fess was a student. Menjou helped him with formal introductions when he first got to Hollywood.
5. Retired from Hollywood in 1973; among his successful California businesses are an ocean-front resort in Santa Barbara; a 21-room inn in Los Olivos; and an award-winning winery.
6. At the time he was famous in France for his Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone roles, French distributors found they had to rename him - on posters, in TV programmers...etc. - for the French audience/ Public, into "Fier" Parker. One must know that "fesse(s)", in French, means "buttocks, bottom", whereas "fier" means "proud" ; a more becoming name for someone embodying American "Heroes"...
7. Walt Disney would not let Parker out of his contract, so he had to turn down a part in The Searchers (1956).
8. Song "King of the Wild Frontier" was Number 1 on the "Hit Parade" for 16 weeks. Parker was paid $150. (source: interview with Fess Parker in the SF Chronicle, "Datebook" ("Pink") section, November 12, 2006).
9. To one generation of television fans he will always be Davy Crockett. To the next generation he will be the one and only Daniel Boone.
10. Best remembered by the public as Disney's Davy Crockett.
11. Parker talks about the beginnings of his career and the movie Them! (1954) in the book "A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde" (McFarland, 2010) by Tom Weaver.
12. Has two children, Fess Elisha III (Fess Parker) and Ashley Allen Rinehart.
13. Appeared as an uncredited extra in Man on a Tightrope (1953). He is seen for a few seconds near the end of the movie as a U.S. GI sitting in a jeep guarding the border.
14. Passed away on his wife's 82nd birthday.
15. Longtime friend of Ronald Reagan.
16. He was a major supporter of the Republican Party and once considered running for the senate in Nevada. He was a close friend of President Ronald Reagan, who in 1985 asked him to become his ambassador to Australia.
17. Wanted to be cast opposite Marilyn Monroe in "Bus Stop" but could not overcome Walt Disney's disapproval.
18. Fess Parker had eleven grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
19. Interviewed about the beginnings of his career and his "Davy Crockett" experiences in the book "Wild Wild Westerners" by Tom Weaver (BearManor, 2012).
20. Was the only actor to appear in every episode of Daniel Boone (1964).