Robert Parrish
Encyclopedia
Robert R. Parrish was an American actor, film editor, film director, and writer. He received an Academy Award for Film Editing for the 1947 film, Body and Soul
.
Parrish was the son of factory cashier Gordon R. Parrish and Laura R. Parrish. In the mid-1920s, the family moved from Georgia to Los Angeles
and Parrish and his sisters Beverly and Helen
began obtaining work as actors soon thereafter. Parrish made his film debut in the 1927 Our Gang
short Olympic Games
. (Their mother, Laura R. Parrish, was an actress as well and appeared in a few films of the 1940s.) He appeared in the anti-war classic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and Charles Chaplin's City Lights
(1931), and in several films for John Ford
.
Ford then enlisted him as an assistant editor
in 1936 on Mary of Scotland
, and as a sound editor on Young Mr Lincoln (1939). Parrish worked as an assistant editor and sound editor on other Ford movies as Drums Along the Mohawk
(1939) and The Grapes of Wrath
(1940). Parrish and Ford were in the United States Navy during the Second World War, and worked on documentary and training films including The Battle of Midway
(1942).
In 1947 he won an Oscar for his debut as a feature film editor on Robert Rossen
's high tempo boxing drama Body and Soul
; the award was shared with Francis Lyon
. Parrish was later nominated for another Rossen film – the political drama All the King’s Men
(1949); he shared the nomination with Al Clark.
Parrish went on to contribute his technical talents to a host of highly regarded films and made a promising directorial debut in 1951 with the gripping revenge melodrama, Cry Danger
. His subsequent output met with varying success. The Purple Plain
(1954) was nominated for "Best British film" at the 8th British Academy Film Awards. One of the most notorious of his films was the James Bond
Parody
Casino Royale
(1967), in which he was one of the film's five directors. His last film, on which he shared co-director credit with Bertrand Tavernier
, was Mississippi Blues (1983).
Parrish wrote two memoirs, Growing Up in Hollywood (1976) and its sequel Hollywood Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1988). Of the first, Kevin Brownlow
wrote, "His stories about these pictures were marvellous in themselves, and he often came at them sideways, so not only the punchline but the situation took you by surprise. We all entreated him to write them down and in 1976 he did so, producing one of the most enchanting - and hilarious - books about the picture business ever written. It was called Growing Up in Hollywood and it ought to be reprinted in this centenary year." Summing up Parrish's career, Allen Grant Richards wrote, "Other than his excellent editing work and early directing, Parrish may be most remembered as storyteller from his two books of Hollywood memoirs."
Body and Soul (1947 film)
Body and Soul is a 1947 film noir which tells the story of a boxer who becomes involved with crooked promoters. It stars John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere and William Conrad....
.
Parrish was the son of factory cashier Gordon R. Parrish and Laura R. Parrish. In the mid-1920s, the family moved from Georgia to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Parrish and his sisters Beverly and Helen
Helen Parrish
Helen Parrish was an American movie actress, the daughter of stage and bit film actress Laura Parrish.-Career:...
began obtaining work as actors soon thereafter. Parrish made his film debut in the 1927 Our Gang
Our Gang
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
short Olympic Games
Olympic Games (film)
Olympic Games is a 1927 short silent comedy film directed by Robert A. McGowan. It was the 63rd Our Gang short subject released.-Plot:...
. (Their mother, Laura R. Parrish, was an actress as well and appeared in a few films of the 1940s.) He appeared in the anti-war classic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and Charles Chaplin's City Lights
City Lights
City Lights is a 1931 American silent film and romantic comedy-drama written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. It also has the leads Virginia Cherrill and Harry Myers. Although "talking" pictures were on the rise since 1928, City Lights was immediately popular. Today, it is thought of...
(1931), and in several films for John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
.
Ford then enlisted him as an assistant editor
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
in 1936 on Mary of Scotland
Mary of Scotland (film)
Mary of Scotland is a 1936 RKO film starring Katharine Hepburn as the 16th century ruler, Mary, Queen of Scots. Directed by John Ford, it is an adaptation of the 1933 Maxwell Anderson play by Dudley Nichols. The play starred Helen Hayes as Mary...
, and as a sound editor on Young Mr Lincoln (1939). Parrish worked as an assistant editor and sound editor on other Ford movies as Drums Along the Mohawk
Drums Along the Mohawk
Drums Along the Mohawk is a 1939 historical Technicolor film based upon a 1936 novel of the same name by American author, Walter D. Edmonds. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by John Ford. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert portray settlers on the New York frontier during the...
(1939) and The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath (film)
The Grapes of Wrath is a 1940 drama film directed by John Ford. It was based on John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Nunnally Johnson and the executive producer was Darryl F...
(1940). Parrish and Ford were in the United States Navy during the Second World War, and worked on documentary and training films including The Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is a 1942 American documentary film short directed by John Ford. It is a montage of color footage of the Battle of Midway with voice overs of various narrators, including Donald Crisp, Henry Fonda, and Jane Darwell...
(1942).
In 1947 he won an Oscar for his debut as a feature film editor on Robert Rossen
Robert Rossen
Robert Rossen was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer whose film career spanned almost three decades. His 1949 film All the King's Men won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, while Rossen was nominated for an Oscar as Best Director...
's high tempo boxing drama Body and Soul
Body and Soul (1947 film)
Body and Soul is a 1947 film noir which tells the story of a boxer who becomes involved with crooked promoters. It stars John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere and William Conrad....
; the award was shared with Francis Lyon
Francis D. Lyon
Francis D. Lyon was an American film director and film editor. He and Robert Parrish won the Academy Award for Film Editing for the 1947 film, Body and Soul....
. Parrish was later nominated for another Rossen film – the political drama All the King’s Men
All the King's Men (1949 film)
All the King's Men is a 1949 drama film based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Rossen and starred Broderick Crawford in the role of Willie Stark.-Plot:...
(1949); he shared the nomination with Al Clark.
Parrish went on to contribute his technical talents to a host of highly regarded films and made a promising directorial debut in 1951 with the gripping revenge melodrama, Cry Danger
Cry Danger
Cry Danger is a 1951 film noir thriller shot in twenty-two days in Los Angeles, including the Bunker Hill section of the city. The film was directed by Robert Parrish, a former child star and later editor in his debut as a director.-Plot:...
. His subsequent output met with varying success. The Purple Plain
The Purple Plain
The Purple Plain is a 1954 British war film, directed by Robert Parrish, with Gregory Peck playing a Canadian pilot serving in the Royal Air Force in Burma in the closing months of the World War II, who is battling with depression after having lost his wife...
(1954) was nominated for "Best British film" at the 8th British Academy Film Awards. One of the most notorious of his films was the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
Parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
Casino Royale
Casino Royale (1967 film)
Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the...
(1967), in which he was one of the film's five directors. His last film, on which he shared co-director credit with Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier is a French director, screenwriter, actor, and producer.-Life and career:Tavernier was born in Lyon, the son of Geneviève and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, several years president of the French PEN club. Tavernier wanted to become a filmmaker since the age of thirteen...
, was Mississippi Blues (1983).
Parrish wrote two memoirs, Growing Up in Hollywood (1976) and its sequel Hollywood Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1988). Of the first, Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent...
wrote, "His stories about these pictures were marvellous in themselves, and he often came at them sideways, so not only the punchline but the situation took you by surprise. We all entreated him to write them down and in 1976 he did so, producing one of the most enchanting - and hilarious - books about the picture business ever written. It was called Growing Up in Hollywood and it ought to be reprinted in this centenary year." Summing up Parrish's career, Allen Grant Richards wrote, "Other than his excellent editing work and early directing, Parrish may be most remembered as storyteller from his two books of Hollywood memoirs."
Autobiographies
- Growing Up in Hollywood, New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976, ISBN 0586048596
- Hollywood Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Boston: Little, Brown, 1988, ISBN 0316692557
Director
- Remember That Face (1951)
- My Pal GusMy Pal GusMy Pal Gus is a 1952 comedy-drama film which follows Gus who is the young son of divorced industrialist Dave Jennings . Unable to cope with Gus' mischievous streak, Jennings places the boy in a day-care center. Gus' teacher Lydia Marble manages to curb the boy's prankishness, and along the way...
(1952) - Rough ShootRough ShootRough Shoot is a 1953 British thriller film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Joel McCrea, Evelyn Keyes and Herbert Lom. A retired American army officer living in the English countryside shoots at a man he takes to be a poacher. Believing he has killed him he goes on the run from the British...
(1953) - The Purple PlainThe Purple PlainThe Purple Plain is a 1954 British war film, directed by Robert Parrish, with Gregory Peck playing a Canadian pilot serving in the Royal Air Force in Burma in the closing months of the World War II, who is battling with depression after having lost his wife...
(1954) - Lucy Gallant (1955)
- Fire Down BelowFire Down Below (1957 film)Fire Down Below is a 1957 adventure drama film starring Rita Hayworth, Jack Lemmon and Robert Mitchum and was directed by Robert Parrish.It was based on Max Catto's 1954 novel and filmed by Warwick Films on location in Trinidad and Tobago in Technicolor and CinemaScope.-Plot:After the Korean War,...
(1957) - Saddle the WindSaddle the WindSaddle the Wind is a Western film directed Robert Parrish and written by Rod Serling.-Plot:Retired gunslinger and former Confederate soldier Steve Sinclair is living as a rancher in a small western community. He collaborates with the main landowner Dennis Deneen , from whom he rents the ranch, to...
(1958) - The Wonderful CountryThe Wonderful Country (film)The Wonderful Country is a 1959 Technicolor Western film based on Tom Lea's novel of the same name that was produced by Robert Mitchum's DRM Production company in Mexico. Tom Lea has a cameo as a barber.-Plot:...
(1959) - In the French StyleIn the French StyleIn the French Style is a 1963 French-American romance film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Jean Seberg, Stanley Baker and Philippe Forquet. A young American student comes to Paris to study art where she falls in love with a Frenchman. However he father wants her to break off the romance and...
(1963) - Up from the BeachUp from the BeachUp from the Beach is a 1965 Anglo-American war film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Cliff Robertson, Red Buttons and James Robertson Justice...
(1965) - Casino RoyaleCasino Royale (1967 film)Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the...
(1967) - The BoboThe BoboThe Bobo is a 1967 British comedy film starring Peter Sellers and co-starring his then-wife Britt Ekland. Based on the 1959 novel Olimpia by Burt Cole, also known as Thomas Dixon, Sellers is featured as the would-be singing matador, Juan Bautista...
(1967) - DuffyDuffy (film)Duffy is a 1968 Anglo-American comedy film directed by Robert Parrish and starring James Coburn, James Mason, Susannah York and James Fox.-Plot:...
(1968) - DoppelgängerDoppelgänger (1969 film)Doppelgänger is a 1969 British science-fiction film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Roy Thinnes, Ian Hendry, Lynn Loring and Patrick Wymark. Outside Europe, it is known as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, which is now the more popular title...
(1969) - A Town Called Bastard (1971)
- The Marseille ContractThe Marseille ContractThe Marseille Contract is a 1974 British thriller film directed by Robert Parrish and scored by Roy Budd. It stars Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and James Mason. It concerns an attempt to bring down a drugs baron, by hiring an assassin...
(1974)
Editor
The director(s) of each film is indicated in parenthesis.- Of Men and Music (Hammid/ReisIrving ReisIrving Reis, born May 7, 1906, in New York City – died July 3, 1953, in Woodland Hills, California, was a radio program producer & director, and a film director.Reis was the creator of the experimental anthology program on the radio, Columbia Workshop...
-1951) - No Sad Songs for Me (MatéRudolph MatéBorn in Kraków , Maté started in the film business after his graduation from the University of Budapest. He went on to work as an assistant cameraman in Hungary and later throughout Europe, sometimes with noted colleague Karl Freund...
-1950) - as editorial advisor; with William A. Lyon - Caught (OphülsMax OphülsMaximillian Oppenheimer — known as Max Ophüls — was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany , France , the United States , and France again...
-1949) - All the King's MenAll the King's Men (1949 film)All the King's Men is a 1949 drama film based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Rossen and starred Broderick Crawford in the role of Willie Stark.-Plot:...
(RossenRobert RossenRobert Rossen was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer whose film career spanned almost three decades. His 1949 film All the King's Men won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, while Rossen was nominated for an Oscar as Best Director...
-1949) - as editorial advisor; with Al Clark (editor) - No Minor VicesNo Minor VicesNo Minor Vices is a 1948 American black-and-white comedy film written by Arnold Manoff and directed by Lewis Milestone with Robert Aldrich as 1st assistant director...
(1948) - A Double LifeA Double LifeA Double Life is a 1947 film noir which tells the story of an actor whose mind becomes affected by the character he portrays. The movie starred Ronald Colman and Signe Hasso...
(CukorGeorge CukorGeorge Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
-1947) - Body and SoulBody and Soul (1947 film)Body and Soul is a 1947 film noir which tells the story of a boxer who becomes involved with crooked promoters. It stars John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere and William Conrad....
(Rossen-1947) - with Francis D. LyonFrancis D. LyonFrancis D. Lyon was an American film director and film editor. He and Robert Parrish won the Academy Award for Film Editing for the 1947 film, Body and Soul.... - The Nazi PlanThe Nazi PlanThe Nazi Plan is a 1945 American film directed by George Stevens. The film was produced and presented as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials for Hermann Göring and twenty other Nazi leaders.- Cast :*Hermann Göring as Himself...
(StevensGeorge StevensGeorge Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Among his most notable films were Diary of Anne Frank , nominated for Best Director, Giant , winner of Oscar for Best Director, Shane , Oscar nominated, and A Place in the Sun , winner of Oscar for Best...
-1945) - That Justice Be DoneThat Justice Be DoneThat Justice Be Done was a one-reel propaganda film made in 1946 by the Office of War Information for the US Chief of Counsel at Nuremberg and the War Crimes Office of the Judge Advocate General's Corps....
(Stevens-1945) - December 7th (film)December 7th (film)December 7th is a propaganda film produced by the US Navy and directed by John Ford, about the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the event which sparked the Pacific War and American involvement in World War II.-Production background:...
(FordJohn FordJohn Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
-1943) - German Industrial Manpower (Ford-1943)
- How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines (Ford-1943)
- The Battle of MidwayThe Battle of MidwayThe Battle of Midway is a 1942 American documentary film short directed by John Ford. It is a montage of color footage of the Battle of Midway with voice overs of various narrators, including Donald Crisp, Henry Fonda, and Jane Darwell...
(Ford-1942)