Gerard Parkes
Irish-Canadian actor (1924–2014)

Gerard Parkes (October 16, 1924 – October 19, 2014) was an Irish-Canadian actor. He was born in Dublin and moved to Toronto in 1956. Parkes is known for playing Doc on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series Fraggle Rock and the bartender in the film The Boondock Saints and its sequel The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.
Career
Parkes' acting career spanned film, radio, television, and the stage. He worked often on CBC radio, beginning in 1959, and shifted into television and film, acting in such diverse series as the 1960s' ecological adventure series The Forest Rangers, family show The Littlest Hobo (both series), and the detective series Cagney and Lacey.
In 1968, Parkes won the first Canadian film award (then called the Etrog and now known as the Gemini) for his portrayal of Uncle Matthew in the movie Isabel. Parkes received the Andrew Allan Award in 1983 for Best Radio Actor, and in 1999, he won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance in a Featured Role for Kilt. Parkes played Wiff Roach in Mike Newell's 1976 television adaptation of David French's theatrical play Of the Fields, Lately.
Parkes played "Doc" in the North American version of Fraggle Rock. When he was cast in Fraggle Rock, Parkes was finishing a regular role as another type of "doc," playing Dr.
The public source identifies “Gerard Parkes” as irish-Canadian actor (1924–2014). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gerard, Parkes and Irish-Canadian.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5550123. VIAF identifies the subject as 250687940. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1924, 2014, 1956 and 1959.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gerard Parkes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.