By Steve Green: Michael Parks (1940-2017): American actor, died May 10, aged 77. Genre roles included The Bible: In the Beginning… (1963, as Adam), The Savage Bees (1976), Night Cries (1978), Fantasy Island (one episode, 1979), War of the Worlds (one episode, 1989), Nightmare Beach (1989), Twin Peaks (five episodes, 1990-91), SeaQuest 2032 (one episode, 1993), Sorceress (1995), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter (1999, in a different role), Planet Terror (2007), We Are What We Are (2013). He was to have appeared in The Summoning, currently in early pre-production.
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It’s worth noting that there were two Fantasy Island series, the original running for seven seasons and the remake lasting I believe thirteen episodes. I like the second better as it had Malcolm McDowell as The Host and Madchen Amick as his supernatural assistant.
And for many of us of a certain age, he was Bronson in Then Came Bronson. (I still a record album that he recorded during that time. He had a good voice.)
Darn. I was just watching him recently while re-watching the original Twin Peaks (preparing for the new Showtime series), and happened to read then just how many shows and moves he appeared in over the years. He was well-respected in Hollywood.
An actor’s actor, indeed.
‘Before you came here, Twin Peaks was a simple place. My brothers sold drugs to truck-drivers and teenagers. One-Eyed Jack’s welcomed curious tourists and businessmen. Quiet people lived quiet lives. Then a pretty girl dies. And you arrive. Everything changes. My brother Bernard is shot and left to die in the woods. A grieving father smothers my surviving brother with a pillow. Arson, kidnapping. More death and destruction. Suddenly the quiet people here are no longer quiet. Their simple dreams have become a nightmare. Maybe you brought the nightmare with you. And maybe, it will die with you.’
— Parks’s character Jean Renault in Twin Peaks season 2, the one few watched after episode 7.
I recognized the name, but not for any of the listed genre work. Like John Lorentz, I remember him from THEN CAME BRONSON. I recall it as a quirky, character-driven show. One episode centered around a barn-painter who painted the side of a barn with a giant nude… of the barn-owner’s wife. *Oops*