Background

Walter F. Parkes was born on April 15, 1951 in Bakersfield, California, United States as Walter Steven Fishman. The son of a plastic surgeon, he grew up in Bakersfield, California.

Education

Parkes graduated from Yale College in anthropology cum laude in 1973, and then studied communications and documentary film at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Communication where he began his first feature length film.

Career

Walter Parkes’ first film, created with Keith Critchlow, was the 1975 documentary, The California Reich. Based on interviews, the film shows members of neo-Nazi groups in the San Francisco Bay Area at work and play, interacting with their children and discussing the reasons they embrace a white supremacist ideology. One group get-together features a band called Otis Cochran and the Three Bigots performing songs with racially charged lyrics.

WarGames, released in 1983, is the story of a young computer hacker (portrayed by Matthew Broderick) who taps into the computerized defense systems of the United States without realizing it. He thinks he is merely playing an electronic game, but he has actually alerted American defense computers that the Soviet Union has launched nuclear missiles aimed at North America. Computer technology also was used heavily in Parkes’ 1992 collaboration with Lasker, Sneakers. Described as a “retro caper film” by Ralph Novak of People magazine. Sneakers follows a company which performs the service of testing company security systems by trying to break into them — both electronically and physically.

Parkes has also teamed with Lasker for some of his film production work — for instance, the Oscar-nominated Awakenings, based on the real-life case of a virtually comatose patient brought temporarily back to normal function by the drug L-DOPA. For this film, Parkes and Lasker worked with actors Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro and director Penny Marshall. Parkes also works with his wife, Laurie MacDonald, on production and writing projects. Also a producer, MacDonald formerly held the title of production executive at Columbia.

Together, Parkes and MacDonald became the president and executive vice president of Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment in 1992. In 1994, when Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen formed their new studio, DreamWorks SKG, Parkes and MacDonald were named co-heads of the Motion Picture Division.

In the late 1990s, the couple rode a wave of hit films. They produced The Mask of Zorro for Sony in 1998, which eventually grossed $94 million at the box office in the United States. Their next picture for DreamWorks, 2000's Gladiator, grossed more than twice that. There was no doubt that the couple had an outstanding sense of what made a popular film. In 2001, the couple viewed a Japanese horror film called Ringu. Within hours of watching Ringu, they had bought the rights to it, and this became the heralded DreamWorks picture The Ring in 2002.

That year, they produced seven films, five for DreamWorks, one for Fox, and the sequel to Men in Black for Sony. These were all strong movies, including the critically acclaimed science fiction film Minority Report and the Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle Catch Me If You Can. By 2002, the couple had more than two dozen films to their combined credit, and these had grossed some $4.3 billion worldwide.

MacDonald and Parkes had no intention of stopping after that banner year. They planned to follow up over the next few years with a sequel to The Ring, another remake of a Japanese film called Ikiru, Gladiator 2, and a film written by playwright Tom Stoppard, among other projects. The couple had an opulent deal with DreamWorks, giving them up to five percent of revenues from films they produced. In a world of three–week marriages and high-level executive fallings out, MacDonald and Parkes seemed uniquely talented in maintaining their flourishing dual careers.

Achievements

• As a screenwriter, Parkes is largely acknowledged as a pioneer in the development of the "tech-thriller" genre with WarGames, a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominee, and Sneakers, starring Robert Redford. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards, receiving his first nomination as the director/ producer of the 1975 documentary The California Reich; his second for co-writing the original screenplay for WarGames; and his third as a producer of Awakenings. Walter was ranked #22 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List with wife and producing partner Laurie MacDonald. They had ranked #33 in 2002.

Works

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  • Wargames

    (High school student David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) un...)

    1983
  • Flight

    (Academy Award winner Denzel Washington stars in this "riv...)

    2012
  • Minority Report

    (Minority Report, produced by Walter F. Parkes, is about a...)

    200
  • Crossbones

    (In the serial, produced by Walter F. Parkes, it's 1729. O...)

    2014
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, Evil Judge Tu...)

    2007
  • The Kite Runner

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, Afghani immig...)

    2007
  • Sneakers

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, Computer hack...)

    1992
  • All Roads Lead Home

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, A young girl ...)

    2008
  • Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, three wealthy...)

    2004
  • The Island

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, a man goes on...)

    2005
  • Awakenings

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, Robert De Nir...)

    1990
  • Men In Black 3

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, agent Jay tra...)

    2012
  • Catch Me If You Can

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, Frank Abagnal...)

  • Men In Black

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, a sci-fi adve...)

    1997
  • Men In Black II

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, Tommy Lee Jon...)

    2002
  • The Tuxedo

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, Simmy Tong (C...)

    2002
  • The Legend of Zorro

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, despite tryin...)

    2005
  • The Terminal

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, after arrivin...)

    2004
  • True Believer

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, James Woods e...)

    1989
  • The Peacemaker

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, when a train ...)

    1997
  • Dinner for Schmucks

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, there's only ...)

    2010
  • Rings

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, when a colleg...)

    2017
  • The Ring Two

    (In the movie, produced by Walter F. Parkes, to escape the...)

    2005
  • Amistad

    ('Amistad', produced by Walter F. Parkes, is about a 1839 ...)

    1997
  • The Time Machine

    (In this updated adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic novel, ...)

    2002

Views

While others in the industry may have been looking more narrowly at marketing categories aimed at specific age groups, Parkes had a feel for mass-market films that brought in a mixed crowd.

Quotations: “The most frustrating and the most horrible parts — and the biggest highs — come during writing."

Membership

Parkes is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Writers Guild of America and the Global Business Network. He is the president of Yale’s University Council, which advises President Richard Levin and the other officers about selected academic and administrative issues. Other non-profit activities include serving on the boards of Para Los Niños Charter School which provides services for the children of the working poor of Downtown Los Angeles, and the Starbright Foundation, an organization that develops and provides products and services for chronically sick children.

Connections

Walter Parkes and his wife Laurie MacDonald belong to a rare breed in Hollywood. They have been married for more than 20 years, and they work together every day as co-heads of the motion picture division of DreamWorks SKG. After they married, the couple had two children, Jane MacDonald and Graham Joseph, and they found that they could incorporate their family life into their careers by working together.

Spouse:

Laurie MacDonald

Laurie MacDonald is an American film producer.

Daughter:

Jane MacDonald

Son:

Graham Joseph MacDonald