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Biography
Barbara Parkins is best remembered as an icon of the sixties who
had starring roles in two of the era's more notorious productions,
_"Peyton Place" (1964)_ (qv) and _Valley of the Dolls (1967)_ (qv)
After arriving in Hollywood as a teenager, Parkins soon began
appearing on episodic television programs such as _"Wagon Train"
(1957)_ (qv) and _"Perry Mason" (1957)_ (qv). She also appeared
with 'George Burns' as a dancer in his nightclub act. She was soon
offered the pivotal role of Betty Anderson in what would become
television's first prime time soap opera, Peyton Place. The show
was an immediate success and turned Parkins, along with costars
'Ryan O'Neal' and 'Mia Farrow' (qv) into household names. Parkins
was nominated for an Emmy Award as Best Actress and stayed with the
series for its entire 5 year run. Her popularity was further
solidified when, in 1967, she starred in the motion picture Valley
of the Dolls, which became a huge box office hit. She became close
friends with her Dolls costar, 'Sharon Tate' (qv) and traveled to
London to be her bridesmaid when Tate married director 'Roman
Polanski' (qv) in 1968. Parkins fell in love with England, UK.
After Tate's murder in 1969, Parkins decided to leave Hollywood and
took up residence in London. There, she appeared on the BBC and
starred in such international productions as Puppet on a Chain
(1972), _Christina (1974)_ (qv) and _Shout at the Devil (1976)_
(qv). Her career, however, was no longer the prime focus of her
life. She married in the late 1970's and lived in France for
awhile. When her marriage ended, Parkins returned to the United
States and gave Hollywood another try. She appeared in popular tv
shows of the day such as _"Love Boat, The" (1977)_ (qv), 0077008,
and _"Hotel" (1983)_ (qv). She also filmed _Bear Island (1979)_
(qv) with 'Donald Sutherland' (qv) and 'Vanessa Redgrave' (qv) and
_Breakfast in Paris (1982)_ (qv). Parkins joined other original
cast members for a Peyton Place reunion movie in 1985. Her career,
however, was once again put on hold when her daughter Christina was
born. Parkins has made infrequent appearances since the late 1980's
although she did return to weekly television for a brief stint in
the CBS tv series _"Scene of the Crime" (1991)_ (qv) which was
filmed in the city she was born, Vancouver. In 1997, Parkins was
the guest of honor at a 30th anniversary screening of Valley of the
Dolls in San Francisco. During a question and answer segment with
columnist Ted Casablanca she announced to the sold out audience
that she planned to retire. The following year, however, she
appeared in _Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story (1998)_ ,
based on the life of Valley of the Dolls' controversial author.
Whether Parkins will resume her career full time or really retire
is unknown at this time.
Biography courtesy of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).
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Barbara Parkins
