Fess ParkerFilmography

American Gunmaker: The John M. Browning Story

Climb an Angry Mountain

Actors: Barry Nelson, Clay O'Brien, Fess Parker

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Climb an Angry Mountain revives the reliable "country cop vs city cop" concept, with Fess Parker and Barry Nelson on either side of the argument. New York City officer Nelson wants to use state-of-art methods to track down a fugitive Indian criminal (played by former football star Joe Kapp Read More

Daniel Boone: Season 06

Actors: Fess Parker, Dal McKennon

Daniel Boone: Season 05

Actors: Fess Parker, Dal McKennon

Daniel Boone: Season 04

Actors: Fess Parker

Smoky

Actors: Fess Parker, Diana Hyland, Katy Jurado, Hoyt Axton, Robert J. Wilke

Synopsis: In this touching western horse story, a wandering cowboy and rodeo rider finds a beautiful wild stallion, captures him, and trains him into a fine horse. Unfortunately, the cowboy's wicked brother trades the horse so he can pay off some debts. Just as he is trying to take Smoky from his pen Read More

Daniel Boone: Season 03

Actors: Fess Parker, Dal McKennon

Daniel Boone: Season 02

Actors: Fess Parker

Daniel Boone: Season 01

Actors: Fess Parker

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Nothing Ever Happens in Linvale

Actors: Gary Merrill, Fess Parker, Phyllis Thaxter, George Furth, Robert Lieb

Synopsis: Ben Wister (Fess Parker), sheriff of the small town of Linvale, is besieged by phone calls from the widowed Mrs. Logan (Phyllis Thaxter), who insists that her next-door neighbor Harry Jarvis (Gary Merrill) has murdered his wife and buried her in his backyard. When Wister investigates, Jarvis tells Read More

Hell Is for Heroes

Actors: Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, Nick Adams, Harry Guardino, Mike Kellin, James Coburn

Synopsis: Don Siegel's only war film and unfortunately his only teaming with Steve McQueen, an actor whose rebellious persona jibed well with the director's vision, it puts the star in the familiar role of antihero. His character, Reese, is an embittered G.I. who has just been sent back to join his Read More

The Hangman

Actors: Robert Taylor, Fess Parker, Jack Lord, Gene Evans

Synopsis: The Hangman is a stock western with a thin plot and cardboard characters, about a rigid, U.S. Marshal. Mackenzie Bovard (Robert Taylor) takes his job working for the federal government very seriously, and when he goes out to get the riff-raff that defy the laws of the land, he finds them and hangs Read More

The Jayhawkers

Actors: Jeff Chandler, Fess Parker, Nicole Maurey, Henry Silva, Herbert Rudley

Synopsis: Set in the Kansas territory during the middle of the 19th century, this is a visually evocative but conventional western. The story deals with Darcy (Jeff Chandler), a ruthless man, one of the raiders known as "Jayhawkers" who wants more than what life is willing to offer. Starting out as Read More

Alias Jesse James

Actors: Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Jay Silverheels, Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey, Jim Davis, Gloria Talbott

Synopsis: Bob Hope plays a 19th-century insurance agent whose miserable sales record prompts his boss to send him out West, where he can (supposedly) do little harm. Hope manages to sell a $100,000 life insurance policy--to outlaw Jesse James (Wendell Corey), one of the worst "risks" in history! In his Read More

The Light in the Forest

Actors: Fess Parker, Wendell Corey, Joanne Dru, James MacArthur, Jessica Tandy

Synopsis: Those who learned to dislike Conrad Richter's novel The Light in the Forest when it was required reading in high school will be pleasantly surprised by this Disney adaptation. In his second film appearance, James MacArthur plays Johnny Butler, a white youth who was captured by the Delaware Indians Read More

Disneyland: Fourth Anniversary Show

Actors: Walt Disney, Sharon Baird, Bobby Burgess, Lonnie Burr, Tommy Cole

Synopsis: Disneyland began its fourth season on the air with a gala, all-star "special", essentially designed to promote all three of Disney's network TV series. Pressured by his cartoon creations and the latest crop of Mouseketeers to tell them what's in store for the 1957-58 season, host Walt Disney Read More

Old Yeller

Actors: Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker, Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran, Chuck Connors, Jeff York

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Fred Gipson, Old Yeller is set in Texas in 1869. While his father is away on a cattle drive, 15-year-old Travis Coates (Tommy Kirk) takes over management of the family farm. Adopting a "strictly business" policy, Travis is irritated when younger brother, Arliss (Kevin Corcoran Read More

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates

Actors: Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen, Jeff York, Kenneth Tobey, Clem Bevans

Synopsis: Like its predecessor Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, Walt Disney's Davy Crockett and the River Pirates was cobbled together from two episodes of the weekly TV anthology Disneyland. Though it wasn't so labelled at the time, River Pirates is actually a "prequel" to the earlier film Read More

Disneyland: Behind the Scenes with Fess Parker

Synopsis: This episode of the ABC anthology Disneyland is an extended promo for Walt Disney's then-upcoming theatrical feature The Great Locomotive Chase. Narrated by the film's star Fess Parker, the episode offers a thumbnail history of railroads in the United States with stopovers at trainyards in Read More

The Great Locomotive Chase

Actors: Fess Parker, Jeffrey Hunter, Jeff York, John Lupton, Eddie Firestone

Synopsis: Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase is a dramatic retelling of the actual Civil War events which inspired the Buster Keaton comedy The General. Fess Parker stars as James J. Andrews, the famous Union spy who masterminded the theft of an entire Confederate train. To accomplish this mission, Andrews Read More

Westward Ho, the Wagons!

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Fess Parker, Kathleen Crowley, Jeff York, David Stollery, Sebastian Cabot, George Reeves, Cubby O'Brien

Synopsis: Disney's Westward Ho, the Wagons is a leisurely paced western which seems more like a collection of anecdotes than a unified whole. Fess "Davy Crockett" Parker stars as head wagon scout Doc Grayson, who shepherds a group of travellers through hostile Indian territory. Preferring to use brains Read More

Disneyland: Along the Oregon Trail

Actors: Fess Parker, Jeff York, Sebastian Cabot, Iron Eyes Cody, Kathleen Crowley

Synopsis: This Disneyland episode served to promote the upcoming theatrical feature Westward Ho the Wagons, with that film's star, Fess Parker, acting as narrator. After a brief segment in which host Walt Disney relates the history of the Oregon Trail (the pioneer route from Kansas City to the Pacific Read More

Disneyland: Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race

Synopsis: Wisely cashing in on the enormous (and largely unexpected) success of his 1954 Davy Crockett TV miniseries, Walt Disney whipped up a spinoff for the 1955-56 season of his weekly Disneyland anthology. Since frontiersman Davy Crockett (Fess Parker) and his pal George Russel (Buddy Ebsen) were killed Read More

Disneyland: Davy Crockett and the River Pirates

Synopsis: In the second episode of Walt Disney's two-part miniseries The Legends of Davy Crockett, frontiersman Davy Crockett (Fess Parker) and his pals Georgie Russell (Buddy Ebsen) and Mike Fink (Jeff York) try to clear the names of Davy's Indian friends, who have been accused of piracy on the Ohio River. Read More

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Actors: Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen, Basil Ruysdael, Hans Conried

Synopsis: Cashing in on the surprise success of his 1954 Davy Crockett TV miniseries (first presented on the weekly anthology Disneyland), Walt Disney assembled the three hour-long "Crockett" episodes into a 93 minute theatrical feature. While the re-editing process has created a few noticeable Read More

Battle Cry

Actors: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, James Whitmore, Tab Hunter

Synopsis: Adapted by Leon Uris from his own novel, the film follows a group of World War II marines, from Basic Training to Battlefield. Major Van Heflin knows that his men are spoiling for a real fight, but must make do with the desultory skirmishes assigned them by the Brass. All this changes with an Read More

Disneyland: Davy Crockett Goes to Congress

Synopsis: The jewel in the crown of the TV anthology Disneyland's first season was the phenominally successful three-part miniseries Davy Crockett, an entertaining mixture of fact and legend surrounding fabled frontiersman Davy Crockett (Fess Parker). All three episodes were originally introduced with Read More

Disneyland: Davy Crockett at the Alamo

Synopsis: The jewel in the crown of the TV anthology Disneyland's first season was the phenominally successful three-part miniseries Davy Crockett, an entertaining mixture of fact and legend surrounding fabled frontiersman Davy Crockett (Fess Parker). All three episodes were originally introduced with Read More

Them!

Actors: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness, Onslow Stevens

Synopsis: A little girl is found wandering in the desert, in a state of complete shock. When she finally revives, she can scream out only one word: "Them!" Any aficionado of 1950s horror films can readily tell you that "Them" are giant ants, a byproduct of the radiation attending the atomic bomb tests of Read More

Dragonfly Squadron

Actors: John Hodiak, Barbara Britton, Bruce Bennett, Jess Barker, Gerald Mohr

Synopsis: Dragonfly Squadron is set in 1950 in the months before the beginning of the Korean War. John Hodiak stars as Major Mathew Brady, assigned to the base at Kongju to train South Korean troops for possible combat. These troops are to be used to protect civilians in the event of an evacuation, thus Read More

Dragnet: The Big Winchester

Synopsis: Old Martin Latimer is found dead in his home, a bullet hole in his chest. At first, it looks like a case of suicide, wherein the victim had rigged a Winchester rifle to go off with the tug of a string. But young Officer Harkness (played by a pre-"Davy Crockett" Fess Parker) suspects that Latimer Read More

Disneyland: Davy Crockett - Indian Fighter

Synopsis: The jewel in the crown of the TV anthology Disneyland's first season was the phenominally successful three-part miniseries Davy Crockett, an entertaining mixture of fact and legend surrounding fabled frontiersman Davy Crockett (Fess Parker). All three episodes were originally introduced with Read More

Take Me to Town

Actors: Ann Sheridan, Sterling Hayden, Phillip Reed, Lee Patrick, Lee Aaker

Synopsis: An outdoor adventure musical comedy, Take Me to Town features Ann Sheridan as Vermilion O'Toole, a barroom singer with a shady past who has taken refuge in a small timber town in the Pacific Northwest. She's on the run from a federal agent, Ed Daggett (Larry Gates). Just out of town lives Will Read More

Thunder over the Plains

Actors: Randolph Scott, Lex Barker, Phyllis Kirk, Charles McGraw

Synopsis: Randolph Scott is as strong and silent as ever in Thunder Over the Plains. The scene is Texas, in the years just following the Civil War. Carpetbaggers have taken hold of the Texas government and imposed a near-dictatorship, hiding behind the legal protection of the Union Army of Occupation. Read More

The Kid from Left Field

Actors: Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, Billy Chapin, Lloyd Bridges, Ray Collins

Synopsis: Despite the lighthearted promotional campaign mounted by 20th Century-Fox when the film was first released, The Kid from Left Field is not a comedy. The title character is young Christy Mathewson Cooper (Billy Chapin), the son of former big-league ballplayer Larry Cooper (Dan Dailey), who is now Read More

No Room for the Groom

Actors: Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Don DeFore, Spring Byington, Lillian Bronson

Synopsis: Pity poor ex-GI Alvah Morrell (Tony Curtis). While on his honeymoon with perky Lee Kingshead (Piper Laurie), he comes down with a bad case of chicken pox. The moment he recovers, he's shipped overseas. And when Alvah returns home, he finds his house festooned with his wife's troublesome relatives Read More

Untamed Frontier

Actors: Joseph Cotten, Shelley Winters, Scott Brady, Suzan Ball, Minor Watson

Synopsis: Reportedly, there was no love lost between the three stars of Untamed Frontier, and perhaps it was this tension that added so much depth to this otherwise formula-bound western. Joseph Cotten plays Kirk Denbow, the straight-laced son of ruthless cattle-baron Matt Denbow (Minor Watson), while Scott Brady Read More

Springfield Rifle

Actors: Gary Cooper, Phyllis Thaxter, David Brian, Paul Kelly, Lon Chaney, Jr.

Synopsis: Springfield Rifle was Gary Cooper's third western in a row, released not long after the classic High Noon. Cooper plays Union army officer Lex Kearney, who undertakes a covert investigation to find out why the North's supply of horses has suddenly diminished. Because of the top-secret nature of Read More