Birthday profile

Robert Parrish

American film director (1916–1995)

Born
January 4, 1916
Died
December 4, 1995
Zodiac sign
Capricorn
Birth year
1916

About Robert Parrish

Robert Reese Parrish (January 4, 1916 – December 4, 1995) was an American film editor, director, and former child actor. He won an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on Body and Soul (1947). == Life and career == Born in Columbus, Georgia, Parrish was the son of Coca-Cola salesman Gordon R. Parrish and actress Laura Virginia (née Reese) Parrish. In 1924 the Parrish family relocated to Hollywood, "about 400 yards from Paramount Studios", where Robert's mom was "a card-carrying movie mother". She helped all four of her children obtain movie work. Robert and his sisters Beverly and Helen became child actors in the late 1920s. === Child actor === Parrish made his film debut in the Our Gang short Olympic Games (1927). He then appeared in the classic Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927); Yale vs. Harvard (1928), another Our Gang short; Mother Machree (1928) and Four Sons (1928) from John Ford; Speedy (1928) with Harold Lloyd; Riley the Cop (1928) for Ford; The Iron Mask (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks; The Divine Lady (1929); The Racketeer (1929); Anna Christie (1930) with Greta Garbo; the anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930); The Big Trail (1930) with John Wayne; Up the River (1930) for Ford; The Right to Love (1930) with Ruth Chatterton; and Charles Chaplin's City Lights (1931) (as one of the peashooting newsboys who torments Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character). Parrish worked steadily through the 1930s, landing roles (most of them uncredited) in Scandal Sheet (1931); I Take This Woman (1931); Forbidden (1932) for Frank Capra; The Miracle Man (1932); Scandal for Sale (1932); This Day and Age (1932) for Cecil B. de Mille; Doctor Bull (1933), Judge Priest (1934), The Whole Town's Talking (1935), and The Informer (1935) for Ford; The Crusades (1935) for de Mille; Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) and The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936) for Ford; Shipmates Forever (1936); One in a Million (1936) and Thin Ice (1937) with Sonia Henie; History Is Made at Night (1937) for Frank Borzage; Thrill of a Lifetime (1938); Having Wonderful Time (1938); Mr.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Robert Parrish was born

Robert Parrish was born in 1916. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1916

  • Best-selling book"Seventeen" – Booth Tarkington

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGeorgia Tech defeats Cumberland 222-0, most lopsided football game ever
  • Top headlineBattle of the Somme — 1 million casualties
  • Technology milestoneTanks first used in warfare
  • Notable inventionMilitary tanks
  • World population~1.76B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWoodrow Wilson
  • U.S. population99.6M

1916 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Robert Parrish's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19162026
Population99.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.