Eddie Parker

Eddie Parker

In films from 1932, actor/stunt man Eddie Parker spent the better part of his career at Universal. Parker doubled for most of Universal's horror stars, especially Lon Chaney Jr: rumors still persist that it was Parker, and not Chaney, who actually starred in the studio's Mummy pictures of the 1940s. He also performed stunts for many of Universal's A-list actors, including John Wayne. In the 1950s, he doubled for Boris Karloff in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953), and played at least one of the title characters in Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). His long association with Universal ended when he walked off the set of 1955's This Island Earth (in which he'd been cast as the "head mutant") during a salary dispute; he made one last return to the studio as one of the gladiators in Spartacus (1960). In addition to his Universal duties, Parker worked as both an actor and stunter in virtually every Republic serial made during the 1940s and 1950s. Eddie Parker died of a heart attack shortly after staging a comedic fight sequence on TV's The Jack Benny Program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide