LOS ANGELES — Fess Parker, the 6-foot-6 actor who, as TV’s Davy Crockett, launched a 1950s craze for coonskin caps, died of natural causes yesterday. He was 85.
Parker, who was also TV’s Daniel Boone and later a major California developer and winemaker, died at his Santa Ynez Valley home on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.
“Davy Crockett,” co-starring Buddy Ebsen, debuted in 1954 as part of the “Disneyland” TV show.
Kids embraced Parker, as the coonskin-capped hero who stood for the spirit of the American frontier. They scooped up Davy Crockett lunchboxes, Old Betsy toy rifles and buckskin shirts.
And not only was “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” a No. 1 hit for singer Bill Hayes, but Parker’s own version reached No. 5.
True to history, Disney killed off its hero in the third episode, “Davy Crockett at the Alamo,” where the real-life Crockett died in 1836 at age 49. But due to popular demand, it brought the character back for some episodes the next season.