Gordon Roger Parks Jr. (December 7, 1934April 3, 1979) was an American

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, best known for the 1972 film '' Super Fly''.

Life and career

Parks was born to Sally Alvis and photographer and director

Gordon Parks Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and filmmaker, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particularly ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

in 1934. The younger Parks followed in his father's footsteps after his father had success with the

blaxploitation In American cinema, Blaxploitation is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre in the early 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the black civil rights movement, the black power movement, ...

hit '' Shaft'' (1971). Parks died in 1979 along with three others when their small airplane crashed after takeoff near

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, where they had gone to make a film."Filmmaker Gordon Parks; victim of airplane crash"
''The Day'', April 3, 1979. He was 44 years old.

Filmography

*'' Super Fly'' (1972) *'' Three the Hard Way'' (1974) *'' Thomasine & Bushrod'' (1974) *'' Aaron Loves Angela'' (1975) *''The Bushtrackers'' (1980) (started filming 1979 as ''Revenge''; Gary Strieker finished)

References

External links

*
Getty Images
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Gordon Jr. 1934 births 1979 deaths African-American film directors Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Kenya Blaxploitation film directors Film directors from Minnesota 20th-century African-American people People from Minneapolis Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1979