Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will pay tribute to legendary leading lady Eleanor Parker on Tuesday, Dec. 17, with a 14-hour marathon of films beginning at 6 a.m. (ET/PT). Parker passed away Monday at the age of 91. TCM's tribute will feature seven of Parker's films, including two for which she earned Oscar nominations: the powerful prison drama Caged (1950) and the Majorie Lawrence biopic Interrupted Melody (1955). Also included are the memorable thriller The Woman in White (1948) and the rousing swashbuckler Scaramouche (1952).
The following is a complete schedule of TCM's tribute to Eleanor Parker:
Tuesday, Dec. 17
- 6 a.m. – The Very Thought of You (1944)
- 7:45 a.m. – Of Human Bondage (1946)
- 9:45 a.m – The Woman in White (1948)
- 11:45 p.m. – Caged (1950)
- 1:30 p.m. – Scaramouche (1952)
- 3:30 p.m. – Interrupted Melody (1955)
- 5:15 p.m. – Home from the Hill (1960)
About Eleanor Parker
A remarkably versatile leading lady of the 1940s and '50s, Eleanor Parker signed a contract with Warner Bros. on her 18th birthday after gaining experience on stage in Cleveland, in summer stock and at the Pasadena Playhouse. She made her debut in Raoul Walsh's They Died with Their Boots On (1941) before graduating to starring status in distinguished films like Pride of the Marines (1945), her third movie with director Delmer Daves, and Voice of the Turtle (1947), opposite Ronald Reagan and adapted from John van Druten's Broadway hit.
Parker reached the zenith of her popularity and acclaim in the early '50s, earning three Best Actress Oscar® nominations for her terrorized prison inmate in Caged (1950), as Kirk Douglas' neglected wife with a secret in Detective Story (1951) and as polio-stricken opera star Marjorie Lawrence in Interrupted Melody (1955). That same year, she was also memorable as Frank Sinatra's beautiful but hateful crippled wife in Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm.
Parker went on to re-team with Raoul Walsh for The King and Four Queens (1956) and Sinatra for Frank Capra's A Hole in the Head (1959). Her 1950s work also included Hugo Haas's Lizzie (1957), in which she played a woman with three distinct personalities, and Carl Schultz's The Seventh Sin (1957), playing the adulterous wife of a doctor who redeems herself during an epidemic. Madison Avenue (1962) marked Parker's last leading role, but she continued to appear in secondary roles through the '70s, most notably as the Baroness in Robert Wise's The Sound of Music (1965). She continued making television appearances through 1991.
