Parker Fennelly: Movies & Box Office

Parker W. Fennelly (October 22, 1891 – January 22, 1988) was an American character actor whose career spanned more than five decades across stage, radio, film and television. Born in the coastal village of Northeast Harbor, Maine, he was the son of gardener Nathan Fennelly and Estelle Dolliver Fennelly and received his early education in Boston where he studied classical acting and joined the Toy Theater company. After touring with the Midland Chautauqua Circuit and the Jack X. Lewis Stock Company, he and his wife Catherine Deane formed the Parker Fennelly Duo, presenting short plays, readings and impersonations during the early 1920s. His Broadway résumé includes credits such as Mr. Pitt (1924), The County Chairman (1936), Our Town (1944) and The Southwest Corner (1955), and he even directed and wrote material for several productions. Fennelly became a household name through radio, most famously as Titus Moody on Fred Allen’s “Allen’s Alley” where his iconic opening line “Howdy, Bub” delighted listeners, and he also contributed to series like The Stebbins Boys of Bucksport Point and Snow Village Sketches. Transitioning to television in the 1950s, he appeared on live drama anthologies such as Lux Video Theatre and Studio One, guest‑starred on Father Knows Best, and later portrayed Mr. Purdy on CBS’s Headmaster. In film he is remembered for roles such as the millionaire in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble with Harry (1955) and the final Pa Kettle in The Kettles on Old MacDonald’s Farm, with his last screen credit in How to Frame a Figg (1971). Between 1956 and 1977 he served as the beloved Pepperidge Farm spokesman, delivering the slogan “Pepperidge Farm remembers” in his characteristic New England drawl. He married Catherine Deane in 1918, and the couple raised three children—two daughters, Mary and Jane, and a son, John—while maintaining a long‑lasting partnership that endured until their deaths in 1988. Parker Fennelly passed away at his home in Peekskill, New York, at the age of 96, leaving behind a legacy of warm, homespun performances that captured the spirit of New England humor across multiple generations.