Early life

Parks was born in Corona, California, the son of a baseball player. He drifted from job to job during his teenage years, including picking fruit, digging ditches, driving trucks, and fighting forest fires. He was briefly married at the age of 16. He is father to actor James Parks, to whom he is a single father.

Career

In 1961, Parks portrayed the nephew of the character George MacMichael on the ABC sitcom The Real McCoys. He appeared as Cal Leonard in the 1963 Perry Mason episode "The Case of Constant Doyle", and gained recognition in the role of Adam in John Huston's The Bible: In the Beginning (1966). His other early roles included an appearance in two NBC series: the legal drama Sam Benedict, as Larry Wilcox in the 1962 episode "Too Many Strangers", and the medical drama The Eleventh Hour, as Mark Reynolds in the 1963 segment "Pressure Breakdown". He also appeared in The China Lake Murders and Stranger by Night, having portrayed a police officer in both.

Parks was the star of the series Then Came Bronson from 1969 to 1970. He sang the theme song for the show, "Long Lonesome Highway", which became a #20 Billboard Hot 100 and #41 Hot Country Songs hit. Albums he recorded under MGM Records (the label of the studio which produced the series) include Closing The Gap (1969), Long Lonesome Highway (1970), and Blue. He also had various records of songs included on these albums. He played Philip Colby during the second season (1986-1987) of ABC's Dynasty spin-off series The Colbys. He appeared as Irish mob boss Tommy O'Shea in Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994), French-Canadian drug runner Jean Renault in the ABC television series Twin Peaks, Dr. Banyard in Deceiver (1997), Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in From Dusk till Dawn (1996), and Ambrose Bierce in From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (2000).

Parks played two roles in the Kill Bill film series, reprising the role of Earl McGraw in the first film and playing Esteban Vihaio in the second film. He most recently reprised the role of Earl McGraw in both segments of the film Grindhouse. His son, James Parks, played the son of Earl McGraw in Kill Bill, From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, Death Proof and Planet Terror. Parks played a villain in Kevin Smith's horror films Red State (2011) and Tusk (2014). Smith later announced on his podcast that Parks had recorded an album during Red State's production, after Smith and producer Jon Gordon noticed his singing talent during filming. The album, titled The Red State Sessions, was released on August 15, 2011 as a download from the film's website.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1965	Wild Seed	Fargo
1965	Bus Riley's Back in Town	Bus Riley
1966	The Bible: In the Beginning	Adam
1966	The Idol	Marco
1967	The Happening	Sureshot
1967	Stranger on the Run	Vincent McKay
1973	Between Friends	Tony
1976	The Last Hard Men	Noel Nye
1976	The Savage Bees	Dr. Jeff DuRand
1977	Murder at the World Series	Larry Marshall
1977	Escape from Bogen County	Jack Kern
1977	Sidewinder 1	J.W. Wyatt
1977	The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover	Robert F. Kennedy
1978	Love and the Midnight Auto Supply	Duke
1978	Rainbow	Roger Edens
1979	The Evictors	Ben Watkins
1979	Breakthrough	Sgt. Anderson
1979	North Sea Hijack	Harold Shulman
1981	Hard Country	Royce
1982	Savannah Smiles	Lt. Savage
1986	The Return of Josey Wales	Josey Wales	Director
1988	Arizona Heat	Larry Kapinski
1989	Nightmare Beach	Doc Willet
1989	Caged Fury	Mr. Collins	Associate producer
1990	The China Lake Murders	Officer Donnelly
1991	The Hitman	Ronny "Del" Delany
1994	Death Wish V: The Face of Death	Tommy O'Shea
1996	From Dusk till Dawn	Earl McGraw
1997	Niagara, Niagara	Walter
1997	Deceiver	Dr. Banyard
1998	Wicked	Det. Boland
2000	From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter	Ambrose Bierce
2003	Kill Bill: Volume 1	Earl McGraw
2004	Kill Bill: Volume 2	Esteban Vihaio
2006	The Listening	James Wagley
2007	Grindhouse	Earl McGraw	Segments: Planet Terror / Death Proof
2007	El Muerto	Sheriff Stone
2007	The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford	Henry Craig
2008	Noble Things	Pete Collins
2010	Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball	Fritz Tremor
2011	Red State	Pastor Abin Cooper
2012	Argo	Jack Kirby
2012	Django Unchained	LeQuint Dickey Mining Co. Employee
2013	We Are What We Are	Doc Barrow
2014	Tusk	Howard Howe
2015	Yoga Hosers	2016 "Sex Me Up"

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Skip Baxter	Episode: "The Cadaver"
1961	The Law and Mr. Jones	Mike Enslow	Episode: "One by One"
1961	The Asphalt Jungle	Ty	Episode: "The Sniper"
1961	Straightaway		Episode: "Pledge a Nightmare"
1962	Gunsmoke	Park	Episode: "The Boys"
1962	Target: The Corruptors	Rocky Kustak	Episode: "Nobody Gets Hurt"
1962	Stoney Burke	Tack Reynolds	Episode: "The Mob Riders"
1963	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Dr. Daniel Dana	Episode: "Diagnosis: Danger"
1963	The Greatest Show on Earth	Cristos	Episode: "The Hanging Man"
1963	Perry Mason	Cal Leonard	Episode: "The Case of the Constant Doyle"
1963	Arrest and Trial	Gregory Wade	Episode: "We May Be Better Strangers"
1963-1964	Channing	Dante Donati	2 episodes
1964	Route 66	Tank	Episode: "Cries of Persons Close to One"
1969-1970	Then Came Bronson	Jim Bronson	26 episodes
1986-1988	The Equalizer		2 episodes
1990-1991	Twin Peaks	Jean Renault	5 episodes
1996, 1999	Walker Texas Ranger	Caleb Hooks	2 episodes

Discography

• 1969 - Closing The Gap (MGM)
• 1970 - Long Lonesome Highway (MGM)
• 1970 - Blue (MGM)
• 1970 - Lost & Found (Verve)
• 1971 - Best Of Michael Parks (MGM)
• 1981 - You Don't Know Me (First American)
• 1998 - Coolin' Soup (Listen)
• 2011 - The Red State Sessions (SModcast)
• Singles include Long Lonesome Highway/Mountain High (MGM K 14104); Big "T" Water/Won't You Ride In My Little Red Wagon (MGM K 14363); Tie Me To Your Apron Strings Again (MGM K 14092); Sally/Spend A Little, Save A Little, Give A Little Away (MGM K 14154) (all from 1970).

	Biography portal
	California portal
	Los Angeles portal
	Film portal
	Television portal
	Music portal

[ Source: Wikipedia ]