Parker (person)

Donald E. Westlake character who appears in his Richard Stark-signed novels. Parker is the finest exponent of professional criminals. His first name is never mentioned in the novels he appears, and there are many details about him which remain unknown (like his tradition of waiting people sitting on sofas in dark rooms). Parker is scary, not just because he is cold, methodic and efficient, but because Westlake is very successful in making him believable. Parker does not pull off extreme stunts or becomes unreal, he just does his stuff, always taking the most direct route to it.

Parker started his series in The Hunter (filmed as Point Blank and Payback), where he chases his ex-partners and ex-girlfriend, who had betrayed them in a heist and left him dead.

He wasn't dead, but the police caught him, and having a police record wasn't his cup of tea. Slow and methodic, Parker kills'em all, one by one. When the mob protects one of them, Parker takes on the organization.

After that, he would go on on some memorable stunts, like robbing an entire town in The Score or a navy base in The Green Eagle Score... always perfectly blueprinted coups, executed with perfection.

Parker has been played on the cinema by Lee Marvin in the movie Point Blank but he was called Walker, and Peter Coyote in Slayground.

Novels

• The Hunter (1963; AKA Point Blank, Payback)
• The Man With the Getaway Face (1963; AKA The Steel Hit)
• The Outfit (1963)
• The Mourner (1963)
• The Score (1964; AKA Killtown)
• The Jugger (1965)
• The Handle (1966; AKA Run Lethal)
• The Seventh (1966; AKA The Split)
• The Rare Coin Score (1967)
• The Green Eagle Score (1967)
• The Black Ice Score (1968)
• The Sour Lemon Score (1969)
• Deadly Edge (1971)
• Slayground (1971) (First chapter shared with Grofield novel, The Blackbird)
• Plunder Squad (1972)
• Butcher's Moon (1974)
• Child Heist (1974) (Not really a novel, but a fictitious book within a book. In the Dortmunder novel, Jimmy the Kid, the gang plans a caper based on this Parker novel they've got. Chapters alternate between Parker committing a kidnapping and the Dortmunder Gang screwing it up as they try to imitate him)
• Comeback (1997)
• Backflash (1998)
• Flashfire (2000)

Films

• The Score
  (1964; British title: Killtown)
  Based on the novel, The Score, by Richard Stark
• Point Blank
  (1967, MGM)
  Based on the novel, The Hunter, by Richard Stark
  Directed by John Boorman, Starring Lee Marvin as Walker (Parker in the novel)
  Also starring Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn
• Made in the U.S.A.
  (1967)
  (Unofficially) based on the novel, The Jugger, by Richard Stark
  Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
  Starring Anna Karina as a female Parker.
  Westlake apparently didn't like the movie, Godard never paid for the movie rights, so the film is not supposed to be shown in the US. The film is also known for characters named David Goodis, Don Siegel and Richard Widmark.
• Mise À Sac
  (1967)
  French
  Based on the novel, The Score, by Richard Stark
  Directed by Alain Cavalier
  
• The Split
  (1968, MGM)
  Based on the novel, The Seventh, by Richard Stark
  Directed by George Flemyng
  Starring Jim Brown as McClain (Parker in the novel)
  Also starring Gene Hackman, Warren Oates, Ernest Borgnine
  
• The Outfit
  (1973, MGM)
  Based on the novel by Richard Stark
  Directed by John Flynn
  Starring Robert Duvall as Earl Macklin (Parker in the novel)
  Also starring Joe Don Baker
• Slayground
  (1983, EMI)
  Based on the novel by Richard Stark
  Directed by Terry Bradford
  Starring Peter Coyote as Stone
  Other sources claim Coyote's character is actually called Parker in this one, which would make it the first time Parker is actually called Parker in a film.
• Payback
  (1999)
  Screenplay by Brian Helgeland and Terry Hayles
  Based on the novel, The Hunter, by Richard Stark
  Directed by Brian Helgeland
  Starring Mel Gibson as Porter (Parker in the book)
  Also starring Deborah Unger, Kris Kristofferson, John Glover, Lucy Liu, James Coburn

Update: I have just discovered that the text of this entry was copied to the Wikipedia in my 2004 birthday. Cool :)