Eleanor Parker was born in Cedarville, Ohio, and was signed by Warner Brothers in 1941, at the age of 19. She would have debuted that year in the film They Died With Their Boots On, but her scenes were cut.
By 1946, she had starred in Between Two Worlds, Hollywood Canteen, Pride of the Marines and Of
Human Bondage. In 1950 she received the first of three nominations for the Academy Award for
Best Actress, for Caged, in which she played a prison inmate. She was also nominated in 1951
for her performance as Kirk Douglas's wife in Detective Story and again in 1955 for her
portrayal of opera singer Marjorie Lawrence in the film bio, Interrupted Melody. In 1956,
Parker was billed above the title alongside Clark Gable for the Raoul Walsh-directed western
comedy The King and Four Queens. Her most famous screen role was as "Baroness Elsa Schraeder"
in 1965's The Sound of Music.
She broke the champagne bottle on the nose of the inaugural train-set for the California
Zephyr in San Francisco, California on March 19, 1949. Parker was famous in Hollywood during
the Golden Era, but she is less remembered now despite numerous movies and Oscar nominations.
In 1969-70 she starred in the television series "Bracken's World" and several
made-for-television movies. She has also starred in a number of theatrical
productions, including the musical "Applause". She is the mother of actor
Paul Clemens, as well as 3 other children by another marriage. She is a convert to Judaism.
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