Gerard Parkes
Also Known As: Gerard Thomas Parkes, Gerry Parkes, Gerard Parks
Biography: Gerard "Gerry" Parkes was an Irish-born Canadian actor. He was born in Dublin, and moved to Toronto in 1956. He is best known for playing "Doc" on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series Fraggle Rock and the bartender in the film The Boondock Saints and its sequel The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. His acting career spanned film, radio, television, and the stage. Parkes worked often on CBC radio, beginning in 1959, and shifted into television and film, acting in such diverse series as the 1960s' ecological adventure series The Forest Rangers, children's show The Littlest Hobo, and the detective series Cagney and Lacey. In 1968, Parkes won the first Canadian film award (then called the Etrog and now known as the Gemini) for his portrayal of Uncle Matthew in the movie Isabel. He received the Andrew Allan Award in 1983 for Best Radio Actor, and in 1999, he won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance in a Featured Role for Kilt. In 1996, he portrayed Jonathan Swift in the HBO Original Film Handel's Last Chance. In 1998, he appeared on an episode of PBS's Noddy, as Wally the Wanderer in "Noah's Leaving". He appeared with Willem Dafoe and Billy Connolly in The Boondock Saints (playing a Tourette's syndrome-afflicted bartender, also named "Doc"). He reprised the role for The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. He appeared in The Adjuster (1991), premiering at the New York Film Festival. In 1991, it won the Special Silver St. George at the 17th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1993, the Toronto International Film Festival ranked the film 10th in the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time. This page is based on a Wikipedia article written by contributors. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland
Birthday: October 16, 1924
Deathday: October 19, 2014
Adult: No
Gender: Male
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Known For:
Small Gifts
Overview: Nora and Evan are a young married couple who find their finances are in serious trouble as Christmas draws near in this new take on O. Henry's classic story ""The Gift of the Magi.""
Genres: TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-12-18
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The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
Overview: Skillfully framed by an unknown enemy for the murder of a priest, wanted vigilante MacManus brothers Murphy and Connor must come out of hiding on a sheep farm in Ireland to fight for justice in Boston.
Genres: Action Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2009-11-24
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It Takes Two
Overview: Identical 9-year-olds from very different backgrounds: orphaned Amanda and wealthy Alyssa meet at summer camp and decide to switch places -- and play matchmaker between Alyssa's dad, Roger, and the kind social worker who cares for Amanda.
Genres: Comedy Family Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1995-11-17
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Draw!
Overview: In the final days of the Old West, a former desperado faces down a now drunken ex-sheriff, who was his long time nemesis.
Genres: Comedy Western TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-07-15
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David Thompson: The Great Mapmaker
Overview: This short film recreates the story of David Thompson – a man who, over the course of his lifetime, mapped a-million-and-a-half square miles of uncharted territory. His achievement remains unsurpassed.
Genres: History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-01-01
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Trapped in Paradise
Overview: Residents of a friendly Pennsylvania town foil three brothers' plan to rob a bank on Christmas Eve.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-12-02
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Enslavement: The True Story of Fanny Kemble
Overview: Fanny Kemble is a famous star of the English stage, but while touring the United States, she gives up her career to marry wealthy American Pierce Butler. Moving with him from Philadelphia to his Georgia plantation, Fanny sees slavery firsthand, and her outrage leads her to help the family's slaves in open defiance of her spouse. Undaunted by the consequences, Fanny eventually writes a book that strengthens the anti-slavery movement.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-04-23
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Running Time
Overview: This feature film is an exotic romp through the ’60s in song and dance. A fantasy that pokes fun not only at some hallowed institutions but at itself as well.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-01-01
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The Pyx
Overview: A detective investigating the death of a heroin-addicted prostitute uncovers evidence pointing to the existence of a murderous devil cult.
Genres: Mystery Crime Thriller Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-09-08
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Fraggle Rock - Dance Your Cares Away
Overview: Boober Gorg: After being hit on the head by a radish, Boober thinks he's a Gorg! Determined to protect Gorgs' radishes, he joins forces with the giants to capture he Fraggle friends. Blanket of Snow, Blanket of Woe: When Mokey forgets to cover Marjory the Trash Heap before the first snowfall, Marjory freezes solid! With help from Boober and the Gorgs, Mokey keeps her promise to make things right. Inspector Red: Who stole the ancient fragglehorn? Red plays detective so solve the strange and bizarre mystery. Which of the suspects is guilty? Would a guilty Fraggle let an innocent Fraggle take the rap?
Genres: Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-01-04
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Fraggle Rock - Live by the Rule of the Rock
Overview: Catch a Tail by the Tiger: Gobo has not received his usual postcard from his Uncle Traveling Matt. He eventually comes to realize that he must venture out into outer space to look for him – a trip that would terrify and Fraggle. Believe It or Not: Red and Wembley discover a creature who is whatever you believe hi is. The trouble starts when Ma Gorg believes him into being a monster in the basement of the castle. All Work and All Play: Cotterpin Doozer decides she’d rather be a Fraggle, like Red, than spend the rest of her life building with the Doozers. Approx. Run Time: 170 minutes (including bonus features).
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-01-01
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Fight for Life
Overview: Jerry Lewis plays an Ohio optometrist who has a six-year old daughter with epilepsy. He fights to get the FDA to approve a drug (at that time only available in England) for use in the U.S.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-03-23
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Speaking Parts
Overview: Hotel employee Lisa develops an obsession with her co-worker Lance, a struggling actor who has appeared in several films as an extra.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-09-29
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Short Circuit 2
Overview: Robot Johnny 5 moves to the city to help his friend Ben Jahrvi with his toy manufacturing enterprise, only to be manipulated by criminals who want to use him for their own nefarious purposes.
Genres: Comedy Family Science Fiction Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-07-06
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Common Ground
Overview: Fact based story about the racial tensions that occurred in Boston in the 1970's because of court ordered busing to end desegregation. The story focuses on an African-American mother determined to get her children a quality education and a white lawyer trying to deal with inner city problems.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-03-25
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Mother Night
Overview: An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1996-11-01
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Rescuers: Stories of Courage - Two Women
Overview: First in a series of anthology films dealing with Christians who put their lives on the line to help rescue Jews from the Holocaust. In the first of two short films, "Mamusha," as the Nazis invade her country, a Polish Catholic housekeeper takes under her wing the youngster in the Jewish family for whom she is employed, and shepherds him through WWII in hopes of ultimately getting him repatriated to Palestine. In "Woman on a Bicycle," an unmarried French woman is pressed into service by the church to distribute underground communication pamphlets for the Resistance and ultimately ends up helping the church shelter 19 Jews.
Genres: Drama History War TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-10-05
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An American Christmas Carol
Overview: In Depression-era New England, a miserly businessman named Benedict Slade receives a long-overdue attitude adjustment one Christmas Eve when he is visited by three ghostly figures who resemble three of the people whose possessions Slade had seized to collect on unpaid loans. Assuming the roles of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future from Charles Dickens' classic story, the three apparitions force Slade to face the consequences of his skinflint ways, and he becomes a caring, generous, amiable man.
Genres: Drama Family TV Movie Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-12-16
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Spasms
Overview: A gigantic serpent is captured on a remote island and shipped to an American college for experimentation.
Genres: Horror Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1983-10-28
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A Great Big Thing
Overview: A 23-year-old Canadian wanders aimlessly throughout his wasted life.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-06-23
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Heaven On Earth
Overview: An armful of destitute orphans transported to the New World at the turn of the century. This is the turbulent and moving story of four British 'bricks for Empire building' - based on the memoirs of some of the 100,000 'home children' who helped build the new Canada.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-03-01
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The Last Winter
Overview: Tells the story of a young man's struggle to keep his world from changing. Placed in the rural setting of the mid 1950s.
Genres: Family Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1989-10-12
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A Muppet Family Christmas
Overview: Fozzie Bear surprises his mother on Christmas Eve by bringing the entire Muppet gang to her farm to celebrate the holidays. Doc and his dog Sprocket, who had planned a quiet Christmas, end up joining the Muppets in their holiday activities and preparations. The Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock regulars join the festivities, but to Kermit's dismay, the only one missing is Miss Piggy, who has been caught in a snowstorm.
Genres: Family Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-12-16
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The Adjuster
Overview: An uptight insurance man and his film-censor wife become a kinky couple's landlords.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-11-27
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Second Wind
Overview: A successful executive and family man takes up jogging for a hobby. Soon his desire to excel as a long distance runner interferes with his career and marriage.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-04-08
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A House Divided
Overview: In the aftermath of the terrible Civil War which has devastated the South, Amanda America Dixon returns home to find she has become the sole heir to a vast cotton plantation. But the dreadful secret which has blighted her life threatens to deprive her of the birthright which her beloved father David had struggled for so long to create. Raised by her father and grandmother to be the perfect white Southern Belle, Amanda's true mother was a black slave Julia. Confronted with the forces of greed and bigotry, Amanda has to face not only the hatred of a racist world, but the complex truth of a family whose lives have been built on a lie.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-07-30
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Bethune
Overview: Based on the true story of Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, this film traces his life from his beginnings with his deeply religious family in Ontario, through his medical studies in school, where he developed his overwhelming compassion for those less fortunate, and his driving desire to see that they get the medical attention they need. Most of his life after college was spent either working in war zones around Europe or developing new treatment techniques in his home country.
Genres: TV Movie Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-01-01
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Isabel
Overview: A woman believes she is beginning to lose her mind when she begins seeing ghosts and spirits.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-05-22
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The Apprentice
Overview: In Montréal, Jean-Pierre is fired on the set of a TV commercial where he's an apprentice technician. He's penniless, behind on his rent, with a thin resume and no college units. He has a fiancée, Michelle, but his head is turned by a free-spirited model, from the U.S., who saw him being fired and comes to his flat to apologize. She's Elizabeth, a combination of feckless innocence and sexual freedom. Jean-Pierre borrows money from his outlaw friend, Dock, and buys clothes to impress Elizabeth. Soon he's sleeping with her, and he pulls a theft with Dock to get money to take her to Acapulco. Michelle tries to bring him back to her orbit. Is there a way out for Jean-Pierre?
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1971-09-10
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The First Time
Overview: With the coming of summer, three high school buddies--Kenny Leeds, Mike Decker, and Tommy Kingsley--anticipate their initiation into the pleasures of manhood. But Kenny is separated from his friends and sent to stay with his grandparents in Buffalo while his father, a widowed salesman, leaves on a business trip with his secretary-fiancée. Bored and alone in a strange city, Kenny writes his two friends letters about his adventures at "Rosie's," a fictitious brothel across the Canadian border in Niagara Falls. His lie quickly backfires.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-06-11
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Yesterday
Overview: A young American hockey player, studying in Canada on a hockey scholarship, falls in love while risking his scholarship and the prospect of the Vietnam war draft.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-01-24
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The Bells of Fraggle Rock
Overview: Gobo thinks the Fraggles' own Solstice holiday, the Festival of the Bells, is a big waste of time. Despite Cantus' warnings, Gobo goes on a journey to find out if the mythical Great Bell at the heart of Fraggle Rock is real. When the Rock slows down in the winter, the Fraggles hold the Festival of the Bells to make sure it keeps moving. As part of the celebration, they ring bells to awaken the Great Bell at the heart of the Rock. They also dress up as a Weebabeast, who used to guard the Great Bell when the Rock was small. Meanwhile, Doc and Sprocket explore mid-winter holiday traditions from around the world.
Genres: Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-12-24
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Blessed Stranger: After Flight 111
Overview: A sensitive and realistic portrayal of the families' grief after the devastating crash of Swissair flight 111, in which all 229 passengers and crew were killed. A woman whose daughter was among the victims meets a fisherman in Nova Scotia who took part in the recovery mission.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: nl
Release Date: 2000-10-17
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The Boondock Saints
Overview: Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner and Murphy are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker, an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.
Genres: Action Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-01-22
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Deeply
Overview: On Ironbound Island, native Fiona McKay arrives from Europe with her teenage daughter Clair, hoping that the peace of the island will help the girl get over the death of her boyfriend. The girl finds comfort in the company of a visiting American girl and more so in the stories of Celia, a crazy old local who weaves enchanting tales which cleverly combine her own experiences on the island with mystifying legends.
Genres: Drama Mystery Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-09-11
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Must Be Santa
Overview: When the reigning Santa is no longer fit for duty his helpers must search for a replacement. This leads to a wacky, exhausting hunt and doesn't turn up exactly what Santa's angels hoped for. To make matters worse still, "Santy" winds up being just this side of totally undesirable.
Genres: Family TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1999-12-12
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Fraggles Look For Jobs
Overview: Fraggle Rock wrap video taped in 1986, and screened May 16, 1986.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-05-16
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The Suicide Murders
Overview: The apparent suicide of a politician he was hired to follow drags private detective Benny Cooperman into a whirlwind of hard boiled double crosses and psychotherapy whose roots lie in a decades-old unsolved murder.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-01-01
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That Scatterbrain Booky
Overview: In 1932, Booky and her family suffer hardships from the Great Depression. She’s hungry all the time, her parents fight constantly and soon they may be evicted from their home. But Booky has imagination and spirit, and she keeps her family together through those cold, hard times.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-01-01
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O MATADOR (The Gunrunner)
Overview: 1926. The Chinese Civil War. Drifter Ted Beaubien is captured and forced to witness his girlfriend's execution. He finally escapes and vows to avenge her death by taking on a deadly mission to buy guns abroad and smuggle them back. Arriving in his hometown, Ted is shocked to find his elderly mother and younger brother George are penniless. But time is running out, and before he can help them, he's got to get the guns. In setting up the deal, Ted meets and falls for the seductive nightclub owner Maud Ryan who introduces him to the treacherous gangsters who will sell him the artillery. For a gun-runner, falling in love is like pointing a pistol at your heart - and pulling the trigger!
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-06-01
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