Celebrity Nooz: Jameson Parker

Jameson Parker (Actor) - Simon and Simon

Updated: 3/07/22

Name: Jameson Parker

Birth Name: Francis Jameson Parker Jr.

Born: November 18, 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Claim To Fame: Jameson Parker is an American actor who is best known for his role of A.J. Simon on the 1980s television series 'Simon & Simon'.

Family Life: In 1969, Parker married Anne Taylor Davis, with whom he has one daughter. The two divorced in 1975. In 1976, Parker married Bonnie Dottley; the couple had three children. They divorced in 1992. He married Darleen Carr in 1992.

Info: He is the son of Jameson and Sydney Buchanan Parker. His parents eloped on June 8, 1933, and married in Rockville, Maryland.

His father had been general legal counsel for the Parker family steel mill, an investment analyst, and government attorney (Maryland Public Expenditure Council and the United States Naval Reserve). In 1947, he was in private practice, but about to embark on a career as a diplomat with the United States Department of State.

His mother was the daughter of Mark Sullivan, Sr., a former editor of Collier's and later columnist with the New York Herald Tribune newspaper. She was a short story author (under a pen name), and a reporter for The Washington Post.

Jameson Parker Sr. died in 1972. His widow married her husband's Harvard Law School friend, Lewis Metcalfe Walling, a former New Deal labor attorney, in 1974.

Jameson Jr. attended St. Albans School, Washington, D.C., and a Swiss prep school.

He studied drama at Beloit College.

In a bizarre incident Jameson Parker was shot twice by a neighbor on October 1, 1992 near his condominium in Studio City in a dispute over dog waste. He wasn't seriously injured and was released from the hospital the next day. The man who shot him was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to 9 years in state prison.

Trivia: At Beloit College, he acted in student theater productions, and, while living in Washington, D.C., he landed a job with a production of The Great White Hope at the Arena Stage and then acted in theatrical productions of Caligula and Indians.

In 1971, he performed in dinner theater and summer stock in the Washington, D.C., area.

In 1972, he moved to New York City, where he secured several television commercials and appeared in off-Broadway plays.

He was cast as Dale Robinson in the daytime drama Somerset and created the role of Brad Vernon on One Life to Live.

Parker made his motion picture debut in The Bell Jar (1979).

Parker became well-known by co-starring in 'Simon & Simon' from 1981 to 1989.

Thanks to the hit show's popularity, in 1985, Beloit awarded him its Distinguished Service Citation.

He has played the same character (Andrew Jackson 'A.J.' Simon) on three different series: Magnum, P.I., Simon & Simon, and Whiz Kids.

With his Simon & Simon co-star Gerald McRaney he appeared in the theatrical movie Jackals, which Parker co-produced.

After completing this movie, he returned to Beloit College to star in a live summer stock theatrical production as Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

In 1987, starred alongside Donald Pleasence in John Carpenter's horror movie Prince of Darkness (1987).

He guest starred on the sitcom 'Major Dad' with his 'Simon & Simon' co-star Gerald McRaney.

He has written for a variety of hard-copy and on-line magazines and is the author of five books: An Accidental Cowboy (2003), To Absent Friends: A Collection of Stories of the Dogs We Miss (2003), American Riff (2012), The Horseman at Midnight (2012), and Dancing with the Dead (2016).

Won the "Sandoz-Jeff's Companion Animal Shelter Award" in the Dog Writers Association Writing Contest for his article "Eulogy" (Ducks Unlimited).

Where Are They Now: It appears that Parker has "unofficially" retired from acting. I think it would be great to see Parker on the screen again in a 'Simon & Simon' reunion show or in a sequel to John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (1987).

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