Originally from Greeneville, Tennessee, Park has wanted to be an actress as long as she can remember.

"My mother got me interested in the arts. I had great eccentric parents. Mom's a Ph.D., so I grew up in a house full of literature. Daddy was kind of a jack-of-all-trades--good looking and darling. Everybody says I've got a little of both of them in me," Park says.

While she was growing up, Park toured East Tennessee with a children's theater group, which helped prepare her for a stage career in New York. In addition to childhood acting experience, Park had some formal training.

"In the late seventies and early eighties, I attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in the theater program. It was hard to get in then."

After several semesters at UTK, Park finished her degree at Tusculum College and headed for the stage to try out her skills. Her first professional job was as Becky Lou in the Hartford Stage Company's production of Sam Shepard's The Tooth of the Crime. She made her Broadway debut as the prostitute Rowena in Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues (eventually made into a motion picture by the same name).

"I was 28 years old then. I can remember auditioning for a play and seeing the proverbial `man in a suit in the back of the room' taking notes on my performance. I didn't know at the time that he would be the person to give me my first real role in television. I had a few parts in some movies and did a little Broadway, and several years later that man called me. His name was Whit Thomas Harris of the Whit Thomas Harris agency, and he wanted to know if I had an agent. He said he had written a part for me--Laverne on Empty Nest."

Park is recognized as one of Hollywood's bright young theatrical talents. After winning an award for best supporting actress in a quality comedy, given by the members of Viewers for Quality Television for her role in Empty Nest, Park has racked up other supporting roles. She has received several Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actress in a series, mini-series, or made-for-television movie. Some of her work on the big screen includes: Miramax Films' House of Cards with Kathleen Turner and Tommy Lee Jones; MGM's Undercover Blues with Kathleen Turner, Dennis Quaid, and Tom Arnold; TNT's Good Old Boys, directed by Tommy Lee Jones; and The Stars Fell on Henrietta, produced by Clint Eastwood and starring Robert Duvall.

In addition to her roles in films, Park has been busy with television. She starred in the CBS movie-of-the-week Precious Victims with Robbie Benson, Eileen Brennan, and Richard Thomas. Park co-starred with Jean Smart in the CBS movie-of-the-week Overkill and was also featured in the NBC telefilm The Luck of the Draw: The Gambler Returns with Kenny Rogers and Reba McEntire. More recently, she co-starred in the CBS television movie Inflammable (November 1995) as a tough and clever naval lieutenant who helped solve the case of the attempted rape and murder of one of her subordinates on a U.S. Navy ship,

Park has a distinctive Southern personality that makes her ideal for many of these parts. She warns, however, that "it's sometimes hard to work with producers and agents when you grow up Southern.

"These people are very different from what we're used to in the South. It's hard to explain to them that to say a line like `chiggers on a mountain woman' is offensive to a lot of people from the South. I've fought hard to do away with these negative Southern stereotypes in the roles I've played. I've only lost to them a couple of times and had to say the lines anyway. I guess you could say that I have a reputation for being a little difficult where that's concerned."

When Park is not making a movie, doing a television show, or exchanging a few choice words with her producer, she is an activist against corporate negligence and pollution of the environment--specifically in East Tennessee. She is especially proud of her efforts on behalf of the Pigeon River and the residents who live along its banks.

"Fighting for the environment has been more rewarding than anything I've ever done," she says. "We need to warn people that the beauty we have in this area is a mirage. There are some real environmental problems here, and if people aren't aware of them the beauty of our mountains and rivers can trick you."

Although she spends most of her time at her own production company, A Tennessee Waltz, reading new scripts and fighting for movie roles, Park has a lighter side. She enjoys writing, reading, and spending time with her "environmental boyfriend." She even finds time for "leisurely physical activity."

"I rollerskate like a banshee. Not [roller] blades though. I'm a purist. I get out there like I'm Peggy Fleming [on Olympic ice] or something."

While she's not currently working on a big movie deal and claims to have no future in professional skating, Park is still living her dream in Hollywood.

"Even though it's getting harder to get parts at my age [a spry 39], I want to be an actress. And, if I don't burn out on the environmental stuff, I'll continue to do that too."

Wendy Morris West is promotions manager of the University of Tennessee Press in Knoxville.


Return to Tennessee Alumnus, Summer 1996