(written from a Production point of view)
...as Vel
...as Deputy Bennings
James Parks (born 16 November 1968; age 55) is the actor who played Vel in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "The Chute". He later played Deputy Bennings in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "North Star". The son of veteran actor Michael Parks, James Parks has become an accomplished acting talent in his own right.
One of his earliest television appearances was in the 1991 movie Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story. Co-starring with him in this movie were fellow Star Trek guest stars Corbin Bernsen and Casey Biggs. The following year, he made his feature film debut with a small role in the Twin Peaks movie Fire Walk with Me, starring Mädchen Amick, Miguel Ferrer, and Ray Wise.
In 1995, Parks and veteran Trek actor Scott MacDonald guest-starred in an episode of Space: Above and Beyond. The next year, Parks appeared on the popular science fiction series Babylon 5 along with Bruce McGill, Phil Morris, and series regulars Andreas Katsulas and Bill Mumy. After his appearance on Voyager, Parks was seen in the Alien Nation TV movie The Enemy Within, starring Gary Graham, Eric Pierpoint, Michele Scarabelli, Tiny Ron, and Kerrie Keane. He could also be seen on the TV movie Apollo 11, along with Matt Frewer, Tim Kelleher, Jim Metzler, George Murdock, Stephanie Niznik, and Scott Alan Smith. He then appeared with Brian Keith, Mark Moses, Marshall R. Teague, and Titus Welliver in 1997's Rough Riders.
Other television series Parks has appeared on outside of Trek include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Profiler (including an episode with Pat Healy), JAG (including an episode with David Graf), Walker, Texas Ranger (with Noble Willingham), Nash Bridges (in an episode with Daniel Roebuck), The District (with Roger Aaron Brown), The X-Files (in an episode with Neal McDonough), Stargate SG-1 (including an episode with Scott MacDonald), Bones (in an episode with Clayton Rohner), and CSI. He was also seen in the very first episode of Deadwood along with Jim Beaver, Keith Carradine, Christopher Darga, Brad Dourif, Paula Malcomson, Leon Rippy, and Keone Young. In 2005, he appeared in an episode of Brannon Braga's Threshold, starring Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Brent Spiner.
Parks also has a handful of films to his credit, the most notable of which is the acclaimed 2003 action-thriller Kill Bill, Vol. 1, in which he played deputy and "son number one" to Sheriff Earl McGraw – played by Parks' real father, Michael. James Parks' other films include Daltry Calhoun (2005, with Andrew Prine) and The Darkroom (2006, with Richard Riehle).
External links
- James Parks at Wikipedia
- Template:IMDb-link
- James Parks at The Geddes Talent Agency