I just learned this morning that Fess Parker has passed away. Another of my cultural heroes has left this mortal plane alas.
I grew up on the TV show Daniel Boone. It was perhaps the single favorite TV show for my family. We gathered around weekly to see the exploits of the great hero and family man. Being a Kentuckian, Daniel Boone is certainly the most famous man closely associated with the state. And the TV show was great entertainment. It was the first TV show I ever saw in living color. I vividly remember watching it after Dad and Mom came home with the big console color TV set, the green trees and bright blue sky were astounding.
But the show's success was largely due to the incredibly popular Fess Parker, an actor who was able to fairly gleam from out of the small tube. He came across as a pleasant but tough and reliable fellow, a man to admire and to emulate. A warrior and a husband and a father and a citizen. Talk about role models, this guy was it.
I chanced on the Davy Crockett stuff from Disney later, and I like it a lot. But it will always be Daniel Boone who comes to mind first when I think of Fess Parker.
Or maybe it's that delightful small scene he has in the movie THEM where he plays a hapless pilot who is ensconced in a sanitarium because his story that giant ants knocked his plane out of the air is too fantastic to be believed. Despite the fact the heroes of the story believe him, they leave instructions that poor old Fess be kept confined so the story won't leak out. I always think of poor Fess in that sanitarium and I can only hope that after the giant ants are defeated someone remembered to call and get him released.
Fess Parker was one of my heroes. I'm sad to hear the news.
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