Fess Parker, winemaker and Davy Crockett TV actor, has died at his home in California at the age of 85.

Decades after springing to fame as the coonskin hat-wearing ‘King of the Wild Frontier’, Parker became known for the quality of the Syrahs, Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays produced from his vineyards.

The Fess Parker Winery in Los Olivos, now run by his two children, was credited by many with helping to build the winemaking reputation of the Santa Barbara area, and featured in the hit film Sideways.

Parker served in the US Navy during the Second World War, and saw a promising American Football career cut short when he was stabbed in a row with a drunken motorist.

After graduating, he became an actor and landed his big break as legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett in three Disney television specials in the early 1950s.

Further film roles followed, along with the part of another icon of the West, Daniel Boone, but by the early 1970s Parker had left acting to move into real estate development with wife Marcella. He and his family set up the wine business in 1989.

Parker was a friend of Ronald Reagan and was once offered the chance to become the US Ambassador to Australia – which he declined.

His death drew warm tributes from a number of people inside and outside the wine industry, including fellow actor and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Fess and Marcella Parker celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in January. Fess Parker died in his sleep at his home in the Santa Ynez Valley on 18 March, Marcella’s 84th birthday.

News item from Imbibe.com, 24-03-2010