Fess Parker, TV's Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, Has Died

Fess Parker, who played two of the most iconic American characters in the opening of the Western frontier on television, has died at the age of 85. To many of a certain age, Fess Parker was Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.

Fess Parker starred in his first famous role in a series of TV films produced by the Disney Company about Davy Crockett, the Tennessee backwoodsman who had many adventures fighting Indians, exploring the wilderness, and even getting elected to Congress before going off to die at the Battle of the Alamo. Fess Parker's depiction of Davy Crockett was somewhat idealized, as befitted TV westerns at the time. Buddy Ebsen, who lady played as the patriarch of a oil rich hillbilly family in The Beverly Hillbillies, played Crockett's fictional side kick.

The Davy Crockett films also produced one of the first fan crazes set around a television character, with you fans eager to buy Davy Crockett paraphernalia, including "authentic" coon skin caps. The theme song of the TV show, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," became a hit.

"Davy, Davy Crockett,

King of the wild frontier-"

In the mid 1960s, Fess Parker played a second iconic character of the American frontier, Daniel Boone, who settled in the fortified town of Boonesborough in the 18^th Century in what would become the state of Kentucky. Daniel Boone's real life adventures would fill many television episodes, some of which were depicted, with varying reality, in the Daniel Boone TV series between 1964 and 1970.

Singer Ed Ames played Daniel Boone's sidekick, the half Cherokee/half Oxford educated British brave named Mingo who spoke with better English, in many ways, than many of the American settlers. During the course of the series, Daniel Boone and his family encountered many adventures, fighting Indians, animals predators, the elements, and during the Revolutionary War episodes, the British.

Both the Davy Crockett films and the Daniel Boone TV series celebrated the opening of the American West and the fulfillment of manifest destiny that American should spread from "sea to shining sea" as a purveyor of civilization without apology. It may seem incredible in the post 'Dances with Wolves' world, but there were actually TV shows and movies like that.

Fess Parker largely retired from acting after the end of Daniel Boone, turning down the lead role in the McCloud series. Fess Parker became wealthy in real estate and the wine industry in later life. And now he's ridden off for one last time, out onto the final frontier that is the end of this life.

Source: Fess Parker, TV's `Davy Crockett,' dies at 85, Jeff Wilson, AP, March 18th, 2010