Ellen Parker (actress)
Encyclopedia
Ellen Parker
Ellen Parker (born September 30, 1949 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress.

Stage work

Parker is a well regarded New York stage actress; among her credits was the original production of the Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...

 play The Heidi Chronicles
The Heidi Chronicles
The Heidi Chronicles is a 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Production history:A workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre was held in April 1988, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan....

, as well as Equus
Equus (play)
Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses....

, David Hare's Plenty
Plenty (play)
Plenty is a play by David Hare, first performed in 1978, about British post-war disillusion. Susan Traherne, a former secret agent, is a woman conflicted by the contrast between her past, exciting triumphs—she had worked behind enemy lines as a Special Operations Executive courier in Nazi-occupied...

, and the play "Strangers". She also had a role in the film Kramer vs. Kramer
Kramer vs. Kramer
Kramer vs. Kramer is a 1979 American drama film adapted by Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman, and directed by Benton. The film tells the story of a married couple's divorce and its impact on everyone involved, including the couple's young son...

.

Television credits

Parker's first television appearance was in the PBS adaptation of another one of Wasserstein's works, Uncommon Women and Others
Uncommon Women and Others
Uncommon Women and Others , is the first play by noted 20th century American playwright Wendy Wasserstein.-1977 Off-Broadway debut:...

.
Her first major television role was as Ethel Kennedy in the miniseries Kennedy in 1983. Among her other television credits are appearances on Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...

and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...

, as well as The Education of Max Bickford
The Education of Max Bickford
The Education of Max Bickford is a television drama that aired from 2001 to 2002 on CBS. It starred Richard Dreyfuss as the title character, a college professor of American Studies at Chadwick College, an all-women's school in New Jersey. Also starring was child actor Eric Ian Goldberg, who...

and Ed
Ed (TV series)
Ed is an NBC television program co-produced by David Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated, NBC Productions, and Viacom Productions that aired from 2000 to 2004....

.

Guiding Light

Parker is perhaps best known for her role as Maureen Reardon Bauer on Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...

, which she played from 1986 to 1993. She replaced Ellen Dolan
Ellen Dolan
Ellen Dolan is an American actress.She has starred in television soap operas such as Guiding Light, where she played the role of Maureen Reardon Bauer from 1982 to 1986, and As the World Turns, where she played the role of Margo Montgomery Hughes from 1989 to 1993, and from 1994 to 2010.In 1992...

 in the role of Maureen in 1986, and played the role for seven years. During that time, the show's tentpole character, Bert Bauer, died (as did her portrayer, Charita Bauer
Charita Bauer
Charita Bauer was an American soap opera radio and television actress.Born in Newark, New Jersey, she began her career at the age of eight as a model for clothing ads...

), and the character of Maureen became the show's new matriarch.

In 1993, then-executive producer Jill Farren Phelps
Jill Farren Phelps
Jill Farren Phelps is an American television producer.-Career:Phelps has been the executive producer of many American television soap operas: Santa Barbara , Guiding Light , Another World , One Life to Live , and currently General Hospital .Phelps got her start...

 made a surprising decision to kill the character of Maureen, based on lackluster responses to the character during a focus group session. Parker's performance during her character's death (Maureen died in a car accident after discovered her husband Ed had been unfaithful) earned her a Daytime Emmy Award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...

 in 1993. Parker has subsequently returned to the show in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2005 for flashback scenes and moments where Maureen appeared as a spirit. The character's death, and Parker's departure from the show, has proven to be controversial and unpopular. Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...

has experienced ratings decline and upheaval for some time, and Parker's departure is often mentioned as an example of what went wrong.

Personal life

Parker is New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 based and tends to take mostly New York-based roles. Ms. Parker is a graduate of Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...

. She lives there with her husband, a physician. The couple adopted a daughter from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.

External links

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