- Born
- Died
- Birth nameSydney Woodrow Parfrey
- Parfrey was born Sydney Woodrow Parfrey in New York City, New York, to Hazel (James) and Sidney Parfrey, both Welsh immigrants. One of the most interesting character actors to emerge on American film and television in the 1960s, Parfrey brought a quirky charisma to every role he played, from shopkeepers to space-age simians. His noted turn as the unbalanced informer in Broadway's "Advise and Consent" (1961) set the standard for his offbeat, conspiratorial persona in dozens of TV and movie appearances into the 1980s. Always a supporting player receiving inconsistently deferential billing, Parfrey did manage some focal TV guest-star roles, mainly in the late sixties, and a few big A-movie parts, most notably as one of the wretched prisoners in Papillon (1973). Parfrey's association with that film's director, Franklin Schaffner, also included his bit as one of the three "See No Evil" orangutan judges in Planet of the Apes (1968) (he would don the prosthetics again for the pilot of the spinoff TV series). In addition, Parfrey also turned up in the unofficial repertory companies of both Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel. His determination to bring that edgy "something extra" to his profession lives on in his son, the "underground" publisher Adam Parfrey.- IMDb Mini Biography By: David Durrett
- SpouseRosa Ellovich(February 18, 1950 - July 29, 1984) (his death, 4 children)
- Children
- ParentsSidney ParfreyHazel James
- Fought at the Battle of the Bulge during WWII and was wounded and captured by the Germans. It was those experiences that helped set up many of the tough, eccentric characters he played.
- Orphaned as a teenager, he lived in abject poverty during the Depression era.
- Along with Roddy McDowall, Norman Burton and Eldon Burke, he is one of only four actors to appear in both Planet of the Apes (1968) and Planet of the Apes (1974).
- Almost entirely on Broadway or regional stage in the late 1940s and '50s. Turned to TV and film in the 1960s.
- Father of Adam Parfrey.
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