Actor, Stuntman. Born Edwin Parker, he arrived in Hollywood from his native Minnesota in 1931. A skilled athlete, he became Universal's most reliable (and highest-paid) stunt performer, doubling for horror stars Lon Chaney Jr and Boris Karloff, among others. Urban legend claims it was Parker, not Chaney, who played The Mummy in several films of the 1940s and 1950s. He was also given speaking roles whenever his assignements called for pushy cops, guards, hoodlums, or western badmen. His 250 credits include "Flash Gordon" (1936), "Buck Rogers" (1939), "They Died with Their Boots On" (1941), "Cobra Woman" (1944), "Knock on Any Door" (1949), "Rear Window" (1954), "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy" (1955), "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956), "Imitation of Life" (1959), "Pillow Talk" (1959), and the television series "The Cisco Kid" (1950 to 1956) and "The Adventures of Kit Carson" (1951 to 1955). For his final film, "Spartacus" (1960), Parker was a stunt coordinator behind the camera and a gladiator onscreen. He died at 59 of a heart attack, shortly after staging a mock fight for TV's "The Jack Benny Show".
1900-1960