Catherine LaBelle Parks (born December 10, 1956) is an American actress who has starred in movies and on television. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the 1982 horror movie '' Friday the 13th Part III'', as Vera Sanchez, and the 1989 comedy ''

Weekend at Bernie's ''Weekend at Bernie's'' is a 1989 American black comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff and written by Robert Klane, loosely based on the 1959 novella '' The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell'' by Jorge Amado. The film stars Andrew McCarthy and ...

''. Parks was born in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

and grew up in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough ...

. She graduated from Leto High School and attended

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

where she was a theater major. Parks began doing beauty pageants while still residing in Florida, winning Miss Hillsborough County and

Miss Florida The Miss Florida competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Florida in the Miss America pageant. Florida has twice won the Miss America crown. In the fall of 2018, the Miss America Organization terminated Miss F ...

before becoming a runner-up in the

Miss America 1978 Miss America 1978, the 51st Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 10, 1977. The pageant was televised on CBS, making this the last Miss America Pageant broadcast (as of 2022) by CBS, and t ...

pageant. She received her

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to me ...

card after appearing in the film Looker. She has appeared on television shows, her first being '' Behind the Screen'', and she later had a recurring role on the short-lived CBS series ''Zorro and Son'' in 1983. Parks has made guest appearances on TV shows such as ''

The Love Boat ''The Love Boat'' is an American romantic comedy/drama television series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986; in addition, four three-hour specials aired in 1986, 1987, and 1990. The series was set on the luxury passenger cruise ship MS ''Pa ...

'', ''

Three's Company ''Three's Company'' is an American sitcom television series that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. It is based on the British sitcom '' Man About the House''. The story revolves around three single room ...

'', '' Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer'', ''

Street Hawk ''Street Hawk'' is an American superhero television series that aired for 14 episodes on ABC in 1985. The series is a Limekiln and Templar Production in association with Universal Television. Its central characters were created by Paul M. Belou ...

'', ''

Tales from the Darkside ''Tales from the Darkside'' is an American anthology horror TV series created by George A. Romero. Debuting in October 1983 with a pilot episode and then being picked up for syndication in September 1984, the show ran for 4 seasons through Ju ...

'', ''

Hunter Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

'', and ''

Empty Nest ''Empty Nest'' is an American television sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC from October 8, 1988, to April 29, 1995. The series, which was created as a spin-off of ''The Golden Girls'' by creator and producer Susan Harris, starred Ri ...

''. In 2005, Parks left Hollywood and now resides in Tampa. She remains an actress and continues to pursue various movie and television projects as a writer, producer and actress.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Catherine 1956 births American film actresses American television actresses Actresses from Florida Living people Miss America 1970s delegates 20th-century American people 21st-century American women