Colonel Tom Parker

• 1. Introduction

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  Colonel Tom Parker managed Elvis Presley, and after Presley died, a journalist asked him what he planned to do next. Parker answered: "Why, I'll just go right on managing him!" The reply fit the man. He saw Presley's name as a business that could outlive the singer, and he moved to protect it almost at once. Yet very little about Parker's public image matched his private history. The rank he used, the accent he spoke with and the name on his business cards all carried a story he preferred to keep hidden. This documentary asks who he really was and how a man with that past came to steer the biggest act of his age. It asks what his deals gave Presley and what they took away. And it asks why a manager who handled such enormous sums finished his life with so little to show for it.

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• 2. A Borrowed Name

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  A passenger list from the Holland-Amerika Lijn, which went online in 2023, records a young man from Rotterdam crossing the Atlantic aboard the steamship SS Veendam on the 20th of March 1926. He was not travelling by choice. The entry shows that the United States government paid to send him back to the Netherlands from New York. Most biographies give 1927 as the year of his first attempt to emigrate, so the list quietly corrects the record. It also gives his address in Rotterdam: Spanjaardstraat 110.

  He had been born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk on the 26th of June 1909 in Breda, in North Brabant. He was the seventh of 11 children. His father, Adam, was a Catholic who had spent 12 years in the military and worked as a deliveryman for catalogues. Adam died at the age of 59, when his son was 16. By the boy's own later count, he had run away from home 17 times. After the funeral he moved in with an aunt and uncle in Rotterdam, where the uncle worked as a skipper on the route from Breda. At 17 he announced that he wanted to go to America and make his fortune.

  In May 1929, aged nearly 20, he came back to the United States and stayed. He found work with carnivals and travelled with a Chautauqua educational tent show. A few months later he joined the United States Army, lured by the promise of a posting in Hawaii. To hide his illegal entry, he enlisted under a false identity. The name Tom Parker is said to have come from the officer who interviewed him. Basic training took place at Fort McPherson in Georgia. He then served two years with the 64th Coast Artillery at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, before reenlisting at Fort Barrancas in Florida.

  There the record turns dark. Parker went absent without leave and was charged with desertion. His punishment was solitary confinement, and he came out of it with a psychosis that put him in a mental hospital for two months. The army discharged him because of his condition.

  Once he became famous, the public wanted a biography, and Parker supplied a false one. He claimed to have been born in Huntington, West Virginia, and tried to pass his Dutch accent off as a Southern one. He said he had run away to join a circus owned by an uncle. The lie held until 1960, when his sister Nel Dankers-van Kuijk, living in the Netherlands, recognized him in photographs standing beside Presley.

  In April 1961 his brother Adam, called Ad, visited him in Los Angeles. Parker privately acknowledged him and even introduced him to Presley. During that week, Ad delivered the news that their mother had died in 1958, never learning what became of the son who left in 1929. Ad died of emphysema in 1992 and never saw Parker again.

  A courtroom finally settled the question of citizenship. In a lawsuit brought against him in 1982, Parker declared in open court that he was a Dutch citizen. Opposing counsel answered by producing his army enlistment form. Because he had signed it under the alias Thomas Andrew Parker and sworn allegiance to the United States, the lawyers argued that, through a legal loophole, he had given up his Dutch citizenship.

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• 3. From Carnival to Colonel

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  Between 1931 and 1938, Parker worked with Royal American Shows, and the list of contacts he built there would prove useful for decades. In 1935, while travelling with a circus, he met and married Marie Francis Mott. She was 27, one of six children, and had been married twice before. She also had a son from her first marriage. Parker did not know that she had given up a second son for adoption at birth because of a club foot.

  The marriage itself is murky. Parker later told the Associated Press that the wedding took place in Tampa during the winter of 1932. Yet the Florida Office of Vital Statistics holds no record of such a marriage between 1927 and 1946. Marie did not divorce her second husband until 1936, and her brother Bitsy remembered no ceremony at all. The author Alanna Nash has suggested the pair may simply have placed their hands on a Bible and given themselves a "carny wedding". Some people believed Parker wanted a wife with a child to bury his past. No proof exists of any motive beyond romance. The Great Depression was hard on them. They worked confidence tricks and at times lived on as little as $1 a week.

  Music arrived in 1938, when Parker became a promoter for the crooner Gene Austin. Austin had sold 86 million records since 1924 and earned more than $17 million, but he had spent much of it on high living. Singers such as Bing Crosby had overtaken him in popularity. Parker used carnival skills to sell tickets and draw crowds. Austin offered to take him to Nashville, a city where music was turning into big business. Parker said no and stayed with his wife in Temple Terrace, Florida, possibly to avoid paperwork that could expose his status.

  Within a year, a new law gave illegal immigrants a route to citizenship in return for a promise to fight in World War II if called on. Parker never applied. He may have wanted to keep his army record private, or he may have wanted to avoid fighting.

  His next job was as a field agent for the Hillsborough County Humane Society, an animal shelter. The post paid a steady wage and came with a rent-free apartment in a remote part of West Tampa. The society needed money, so Parker put his promotional skills to work. He travelled to Tennessee to recruit performers for fundraising events, and acts such as Minnie Pearl and Eddy Arnold agreed to appear. Soon he was promoting music for himself rather than for the shelter. In 1945 he became Arnold's full-time manager under a contract worth 25% of the singer's earnings. Hit songs, television appearances and live tours followed.

  In 1948 Jimmie Davis, a former country singer then serving as governor of Louisiana, thanked Parker for his help with an election campaign. His reward was the rank of colonel in the Louisiana State Militia. The honour was empty, since Louisiana had no organized militia, but Parker kept the title for life. People simply called him "the Colonel".

  In 1952 a 15-year-old singer named Tommy Sands caught his attention. Parker became a father figure to the boy and hoped to shape him into the next Roy Rogers. Sands showed no interest in that plan. Parker sent demonstration recordings to Steve Sholes, a record producer at RCA Victor, who offered to look for songs.

  Then, in 1953, Arnold fired Parker because of his growing closeness to the singer Hank Snow. Parker still stayed involved in Arnold's tours and demanded a $50,000 buyout to end their contract. With Snow, he founded Hank Snow Enterprises and Jamboree Attractions, which promoted rising country singers. The Hank Snow Tour they ran together would soon carry a young singer from Memphis.

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• 4. Winning Elvis

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  In early 1955, Parker heard about Elvis Presley, a singer whose style ran against the fashion of the day. At that point, Parker believed Presley was black. Presley performed in a trio called The Blue Moon Boys, with the guitarist Scotty Moore and the bassist Bill Black. Sam Phillips, who owned Sun Records, feared that unscrupulous promoters might exploit the young singer, so Moore had become his first manager. The one-year contract was dated the 12th of July 1954, eight days after their first recording session, and Presley and his parents signed it. Moore was owed a 10% commission and never collected it. When the contract ran out, the Memphis radio personality Bob Neal made a deal with Phillips and took over.

  Neal soon struggled to cope with his client's rising success. In February 1955, after meeting Parker, Presley agreed to let the Colonel influence future bookings and promotions. The two men used Parker's Hank Snow Tour to put Presley on the road. By the summer, Parker held the title of "special advisor". Because Presley was still a minor, his parents had to sign for him.

  The next job was a bigger label. Phillips knew Presley needed far greater backing to succeed, but he was in no hurry. He told Parker it would cost $40,000 to release the contract, a sum that was unheard of at the time. Mercury Records and Columbia Records showed interest, though their offers fell well short. RCA Victor, Snow's own label, was wary of the price. Sholes, however, was convinced that Presley's sound could be a huge hit. RCA made clear it would not pay more than $25,000 for a nearly unknown singer, and Parker argued that Presley was no ordinary unknown.

  Parker also hedged his bet. Fearing the deal might collapse over the price, he pitched Tommy Sands to Sholes as a singer who could record material in Presley's style. Sholes, who remembered Sands from before, dismissed the idea.

  In November, Parker and Snow persuaded RCA to pay the full $40,000. On the 21st of November, Presley's contract moved from Sun Records to RCA Victor. Snow attended the signing believing that Presley had joined Jamboree Attractions as a client, which was not the case. Presley was still under contract to Neal, and the paper signed that day concerned only the record label. Neal agreed not to renew his deal when it expired in March 1956, in return for a larger financial stake. That cleared the way for Parker.

  On the 26th of March 1956, Presley signed a contract making Parker his exclusive representative. When Snow later asked about their arrangement, Parker told him: "You don't have any contract with Elvis Presley. Elvis is signed exclusively to the Colonel."

  The first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", made Presley a recording star in 1956. Parker took him to national television, on shows such as The Milton Berle Show and The Ed Sullivan Show, and secured fees that made Presley the highest-paid star on the medium. By summer, teenagers were thrilled by him, while some older viewers and religious groups were outraged. Presley later said of his manager: "I don't think I would have ever been huge if it wasn't for him. He's a brilliant man."

  Not everything worked. In April 1956 Parker booked Presley for four weeks in Las Vegas, misjudging how the older and more reserved audience would respond. Some saw a clown wiggling his hips for screams, and others thought him vulgar. After cold receptions, Parker cut the run to two weeks. Presley remembered it as one of the worst moments of his career.

  Film offered a better path. Paramount Pictures gave Presley a screen test and signed him to a seven-picture contract. Parker made sure Presley could make one film a year for another studio and even set up an office with staff at Paramount. Presley's acting was meant to be serious, but Parker talked him into singing on screen so that singles and albums could be promoted alongside each film. The single for Love Me Tender sold over one million copies in advance sales.

  In 1957 Parker finally launched Tommy Sands. He arranged for Sands to audition for and star in an episode of Kraft Television Theater called "The Singin' Idol", whose story loosely echoed Presley's life. NBC had wanted Presley for the part, and Parker had turned the network down. The script cast the character as a "twisted psychopath". Critics still liked both the drama and Sands, and Capitol Records signed him within a week. His song "Teen-Age Crush" reached number 2 on the pop charts and sold 800,000 copies.

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• 5. Army and Hollywood

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  In January 1958, Presley received his draft notice from the United States Army, and Parker was secretly delighted. He had watched many acts rise and fall, and he doubted that even his biggest star would last longer than a year or two. Presley had also begun to show signs of rebellion, and Parker hoped military life would cure him. Presley wanted to join Special Services, where he could perform and enjoy an easier time. Parker disagreed, since any special treatment would be turned against Presley by the press and by people who disliked his music. A soldier treated like any other young man, he argued, would win more acceptance. There was a private reason too. Blocking the draft could invite a closer look at Parker's own service record. He also saw that the induction day and the shearing of Presley's famous hairstyle would draw cameras.

  While Presley was posted in West Germany, Parker seemed to hold full control. He refused to travel to Europe and claimed to speak no language but English. Instead, he sent Presley's friends to keep him company, asked business associates to watch over him and stayed in regular contact. Reportedly, he feared Presley might learn that other managers would sign contracts taking less than 25% of his earnings.

  Parker worked to keep the public hungry. Before the induction, he had Presley record five singles, enough for RCA Victor to release over two years. RCA wanted Presley to record in West Germany. Parker insisted that a studio session would damage his image as an ordinary soldier. The press also ran stories that Presley would do a live CCTV broadcast on his return, and that he had signed for a series of annual television spectaculars. All of them were invented, yet they kept his name in circulation.

  When Presley came home in March 1960, Parker arranged a train from Washington, D.C., to Memphis, with stops where fans could see him. The crowds along the route erased any doubt about his fame. Frank Sinatra had once called Presley a rock and roll disgrace, but he now wanted him on The Frank Sinatra Show. Parker did not forget insults. He set the fee at US$125000 for two songs, about eight minutes on screen, and Sinatra agreed even though he earned less for the whole show. The special, "Welcome Home, Elvis", was Presley's first national television appearance since The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1957.

  After that, Parker saw Presley's future in Hollywood. He imagined a machine producing three films and soundtracks a year until the decade's end. Presley gave only three live shows in 1961, all for charity, two in Memphis and one in Hawaii. He then performed no concerts until 1968 and had little contact with fans. Parker signed long-term contracts with the studios, which may have guaranteed work and income but probably cost money, since each deal might have been priced from the profits of the last film. His renegotiations were so harsh that the producer Hal Wallis said: "I'd rather try and close a deal with the Devil."

  The arrangement kept costs low. Presley owed RCA Victor three albums a year, and the film soundtracks covered that. Then the Beatles arrived, and Beatlemania pushed Presley down the charts. His films still made money, but less of it, so Parker demanded cheaper productions on strict schedules.

  By the mid-1960s, Presley was starring in films built on exotic locations and forgettable songs. He complained about scripts. Parker answered by reminding him of his lavish lifestyle and the danger of risking $1 million a year for almost no work. In a 1983 interview, Parker admitted that income from the films and soundtracks fell sharply after 1966.

  To fill the gap, he sent Presley's gold Cadillac on tour. He sold the car to RCA for $24,000 and used it to promote the film Frankie & Johnny. In Houston alone, 40,000 people paid to see it in a single afternoon.

  On the 2nd of January 1967, Parker renegotiated his contract so that his share rose from 25% to 50% on certain transactions. When critics asked whether he was taking advantage, Presley joked, "I could have signed with East Coast Entertainment where they take 70%!" Parker explained that Presley was his only client, so he collected just one fee.

  The next idea was marriage. Presley had lived with Priscilla Beaulieu for four years, and Parker hoped a wedding might help his career and calm his restlessness. Her stepfather dropped heavy hints, and Parker urged Presley to make an "honest woman" of her. He chose Las Vegas for the ceremony. On the 1st of May 1967, the couple were married in a quiet ceremony that lasted only eight minutes.

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• 6. Comeback and Spectacle

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  The 1968 television special Elvis, sponsored by Singer sewing machines, began the turnaround. Sessions in Memphis that produced "Suspicious Minds" and "In the Ghetto" completed it. Steve Binder, the special's producer, proposed that Presley sing his old hits. He also wanted a staged section with Presley's old band members, Scotty Moore and D. J. Fontana, an idea sparked by an informal jam in the dressing room after a rehearsal. Presley rarely stood up to Parker, but he saw this as his one chance at a real comeback. With Binder backing him, he told Parker the show would go "Binder's way". The special was a huge hit, and its album sold strongly.

  Parker then steered Presley back to live work, with short American tours and many engagements in Las Vegas. He signed a contract with the International Hotel guaranteeing a month-long run at $125,000 a week, an unheard-of sum. Around this time, the two men agreed to a 50/50 partnership. Because Parker also controlled merchandising and other non-musical income, he ended up earning more than his client.

  The next step was touring for the first time in 13 years. The tours were so profitable that they set Presley's workload for the rest of his life. Parker's job was logistics and ticket sales. He flew ahead to each venue to prepare for the entourage, so the two men rarely met, and over time Parker found it harder to reach Presley at all. The live shows also let Parker meet Presley's obligations to RCA Victor, which released three albums of live material between 1969 and 1972.

  By 1972, Parker had raised Presley's weekly pay in Las Vegas to $150,000. He also secured $50,000 a year for himself as a "consultant to the hotel chain". That June he took Presley back to New York for Madison Square Garden. Three shows were planned, but demand pushed Parker to add a fourth, and Presley became the first performer to sell out the venue four times in a row. Those four shows grossed $730,000.

  Then came the boldest idea. On the 8th of July 1972, inspired by President Richard Nixon's visit to China a few months earlier, Parker announced a worldwide satellite broadcast from Hawaii. His reasoning was that Presley could not play in every major city. Apart from a few concerts in Canada in 1957, Presley had never performed outside the United States. At a Las Vegas press conference on the 4th of September 1972, Parker confirmed the concert, now called Aloha from Hawaii, for the 14th of January 1973. The press was told to expect an audience of one billion for the first entertainment special broadcast live around the world. Parker had not allowed for the time of day, which meant many places, including parts of Europe and America, could not watch live.

  Two weeks after the Las Vegas conference, Eddie Sherman, a Honolulu Advertiser columnist, wrote to him. The concerts would charge no admission and ask for charity donations instead. Sherman noted that Presley recorded and performed "I'll Remember You", written by Kui Lee, who died in 1966, and suggested the money go to the Kui Lee Cancer Fund. Parker saw another chance to publicize Presley's generosity and agreed at once. The album from the concert reached number 1 on the U.S. charts in 1974, the first Presley album to do so since the Roustabout soundtrack.

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• 7. Warning Signs

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  In May 1973, Parker and Presley's father, Vernon, tried to cut off the singer's supply of prescription drugs. They hired private detectives to trace the source and stopped the shipments. Presley simply found other doctors. His main physician, George C. Nichopoulos, sometimes swapped his medication for placebos, which worked only until Presley noticed. Those around him found quitting hard to push, partly because Presley paid their wages and was also their source of drugs. Alanna Nash, in her book The Colonel, suggests Parker may not have known where to turn. She writes: "In the days before the Betty Ford Clinic, the Colonel didn't know where to take him for discreet, effective help and loathed risking the loss of work if the truth got out."

  After the Aloha special, Parker made a deal that was later used in court to show he had not acted in Presley's best interests. He offered RCA Records Presley's entire back catalog for $5.4 million. At the time the catalog seemed unimportant, and RCA first valued it at far less. It would later become one of the most valuable catalogs in the business. Because of the sale, Presley's estate would receive no royalties on any recording made before 1973. Presley had asked Parker to raise money for a divorce settlement, since Priscilla filed for divorce in 1973.

  On the 3rd of September 1973, on the closing night of a Hilton engagement, Presley learned that a hotel employee he liked had been fired. On stage he attacked Barron Hilton, the chairman of Hilton Hotels, in a verbal rage. Parker stormed into the dressing room afterward, and the argument ended with Presley telling him he was fired. Parker shot back: "You can't fire me. I quit!" He demanded $2 million to end their contract. After nearly two weeks of trading insults, the two men dropped the matter and went back to work.

  From 1974, Presley's weight gain and drug use grew beyond control. In Las Vegas he began to look drugged on stage, slurring words and forgetting lyrics. Some of his band later said Parker had no idea how bad things were. Other friends believed he knew but did not know how to deal with it, and he feared the publicity. Parker said he spoke to Presley several times, only to be told to stay out of his personal business.

  In March 1975, Presley met Barbra Streisand and Jon Peters in Las Vegas to discuss co-starring in a remake of A Star Is Born. Presley saw a chance to be taken seriously as an actor, and his friend Jerry Schilling said he was excited. Streisand's company, First Artists, offered $500,000 and 10% of the profits. Parker treated this as an opening bid. He asked for $1 million, 50% of the profits and another $100,000 for expenses, and he spoke of a soundtrack deal. First Artists, unused to such demands, did not counter and offered the role to Kris Kristofferson, who accepted. Parker later claimed Presley had asked for the tough terms so he would not be offered the part. Many of Presley's friends contradicted this, saying Presley was furious.

  Later in 1975, the government of Saudi Arabia offered Parker $5 million for Presley to perform. Parker refused, Saudi Arabia replied with $10 million, and Parker refused again, even though Presley wanted the shows. Promoters in South America offered as much as $2.5 million. Parker told them, "Well, whenever I need $2.5 million, I'll call you."

  Presley began to consider other management, and Tom Hulett, co-founder of Concerts West, was the clear favorite. His company had managed tours for Presley and worked with artists such as Led Zeppelin. Talks reached the point where a deal seemed almost certain, with European tours discussed, and buying out Parker's contract would have posed no problem. Still, nothing came of it. The biographer Peter Guralnick compared the pair to a married couple who started with great love, loyalty and respect. He said they should have walked away near the end, but neither had the courage.

  Parker knew Presley needed a rest from touring and a chance to deal with his addictions. He phoned Vernon to suggest several months off. Vernon replied that they could not afford a break because of Presley's constant, lavish spending, and he threatened to find a new manager if Parker would not keep touring.

  In July 1976, Vernon fired three bodyguards from the "Memphis Mafia": Robert Gene "Red" West, his cousin Sonny West and David Hebler. They decided to write a tell-all book, Elvis: What Happened? Presley, through his father, asked Parker to stop it, and Parker tried several times and failed. According to Presley's friend Larry Geller, Parker secretly hoped the book would appear, so that it might shock Presley into facing his situation. It was published on the 12th of July 1977, about a month before Presley died.

  By then, Parker and Presley had become almost strangers. False reports said Presley's contract was up for sale. Parker denied them in public, yet he had been talking to Peter Grant, the manager of Led Zeppelin, about a European tour. Parker never followed through.

  Presley died on the 16th of August 1977, a day before a scheduled tour. Some accounts say Parker acted as if nothing had happened. Others say he slumped in his office chair, muttered "Oh, dear God" and phoned Vernon to say the singer's image needed protection. That version suits Parker's own interests. Before visiting Graceland, he went to New York to meet merchandising partners and RCA executives and told them to prepare for a surge in demand for Presley products. He then travelled to Memphis for the funeral. Mourners remembered being surprised by his Hawaiian shirt, baseball cap and trademark cigar, and by how he stayed away from the casket. At the funeral, he persuaded Vernon to sign control of Presley's career in death over to him.

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• 8. Settling Accounts

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  In September 1978, shortly after the first anniversary of Presley's death, Parker organized a fan festival called Always Elvis. He, Vernon and Priscilla dedicated a bronze statue of Presley in the lobby of the Las Vegas Hilton. Behind the celebration sat a business problem. Parker set up a licensing operation called Factors Etc. Inc to control Presley merchandise. Presley owned 22% of it, Parker owned 56%, and various business associates held the last 22%. Because RCA owned all Presley's recording royalties from before 1973, the estate depended heavily on that company. With Parker still entitled to 50% of Presley's income, and taxes taken off, the estate received less than $1 million a year.

  In January 1979, it emerged that Presley had missed royalties on songs for which he was listed as an author or composer. Parker had advised him not to join ASCAP or its younger rival BMI. Experts estimated the mistake cost Presley millions, and it likely cost Parker millions too.

  By 1980, running the estate cost as much as $500,000 a year. Priscilla and the two other co-trustees were willing to let Parker keep handling the business and asked the court to allow it. Judge Joseph Evans, mindful that Lisa Marie Presley was still a minor, appointed the attorney Blanchard E. Tual to investigate. Tual became her guardian ad litem and examined Parker's entire period of management. His first finding was that Parker's 50% was extortionate next to an industry average of 15-20%. He also called the 1973 sale of past royalties to RCA for $5.4 million unethical and poorly handled. A second, closer investigation found that all earnings had been paid directly to the trust rather than to Parker. By then the IRS was demanding almost $15 million in taxes, and the estate faced bankruptcy.

  On the 14th of August 1981, Judge Evans ordered Elvis Presley Enterprises to sue Parker for mismanagement, and Parker countersued. In 1983, the case settled out of court. The estate paid Parker $2 million in exchange for all the Presley recordings and images he owned. His involvement in Presley-related earnings ended for five years.

  The money Parker handled so shrewdly for others slipped through his own hands. Biographers including Dirk Vellenga and Alanna Nash say his gambling got out of control in the mid-1960s. His wife's health was failing and Presley's career was struggling, and Parker found escape in Las Vegas casinos. He sometimes gambled for 12-14 hours at a stretch. It is believed he lost at least $1 million a year. Some fans and biographers think one reason he put Presley into a Vegas hotel in 1969 was to help cover those losses. When Presley died in 1977, Parker was suspected of owing the Las Vegas Hilton more than $30 million. He had earned over $100 million in his lifetime, and his estate was worth barely $1 million when he died.

  After Presley's death, Parker worked as a "consultant" for Hilton Hotels for several years, and some believed he was paying off casino debts. He kept the fourth-floor suite he had used while Presley performed. By 1984, with his debts reportedly climbing again, he was evicted. Even so, he helped the Hilton organize a fan convention in August 1987 for the tenth anniversary of Presley's death.

  His wife Marie had begun to show signs of dementia in the 1960s. Parker withdrew from her emotionally, heartbroken as her mind faded. She died on the 25th of November 1986 of a chronic brain syndrome, aged 78. In October 1990 he married Loanne Miller, who had been his personal secretary since 1972. He stayed in Las Vegas and mostly avoided the press.

  Parker still appeared at events honoring Presley, including the 1993 release of a U.S. postage stamp with Presley's likeness. Priscilla invited him to ceremonies in Memphis, and he was on friendly terms with the estate again. He sometimes irritated them. In 1994, after Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson, he said Presley would probably not have approved. At a Hilton event in 1993, a reporter questioned his interest in Presley's legend, and Parker replied: "I don't think I exploited Elvis as much as he's being exploited today."

  When people remembered Parker, the stories were not all harsh. The comedian Eddie Murphy recalled in 1989 that Parker once rubbed his head for luck at a craps table in Las Vegas, which Murphy found deeply offensive. The songwriter Mac Davis described a similar head rub, after which Parker declared that he would be a star.

  Parker made his last public appearances in 1994. Diabetes, gout and other illnesses left him barely able to leave home. On the 20th of January 1997, his wife heard a crash from the living room and found him slumped in his armchair after a stroke. He died of complications the next morning at a hospital in Las Vegas, aged 87, with her at his bedside. His death certificate lists his birth name as Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk and his birthplace as the Netherlands, though it wrongly gives his citizenship as American.

  The funeral took place a few days later at the Hilton Hotel, with a handful of friends and former associates, including Eddy Arnold and Sam Phillips. Priscilla Presley attended for the estate and gave a eulogy. "Elvis and the Colonel made history together, and the world is richer, better and far more interesting because of their collaboration," she said. She added that she was sure the Colonel "must have arranged for some toll on the way out".

  Parker has since been played by many actors, among them Pat Hingle in a 1979 television film, Randy Quaid in the 2005 miniseries Elvis and Billy Gardell in the series Sun Records. The producers of Green Acres have said the character Mr. Eustace Haney was inspired by Parker, whom the actor Pat Buttram met in the 1950s. In 2022, Tom Hanks played Parker in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis. Hanks said he had expected horror stories about a venal, cheap crook, and found the opposite, because Priscilla and Jerry Schilling called him a lovely man. According to Priscilla, Elvis himself was happy to pay Parker half of everything he earned.

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