Timothy Britten Parker

Timothy Britten Parker (born February 8, 1962), also known as Toby Parker, is an American actor.

Background

Parker was born in Iowa City, Iowa, the eldest son of Barbara (née Keck) and Stephen Parker. They divorced and his mother married Paul Forste, who had been a babysitter to the three Parker children. The family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. The Forstes had four more children.

Parker initially studied, with his sister, at the Cincinnati Ballet on full scholarship. His mother, Barbara, said in a 2023 interview that television was "discouraged" and each of her children were encouraged to take a library book with them when leaving the house. “The kids got free lunches for a while, which was embarrassing,” she said. “But I don’t think that we ever lived in an impoverished situation where there was no culture.”

He moved to New York City with his family in 1977 as he began pursuing his professional career. Toby is one of eight children. He has three brothers and four sisters, most of whom also have careers in the entertainment industry, including siblings Sarah Jessica Parker and Pippin Parker.

Professional career

In October 1976, Parker made his Broadway debut as an understudy at the Morosco Theatre in a revival of the play The Innocents, adapted and directed by Harold Pinter.

He and his siblings performed in a touring production of "The Sound of Music."

He played Doctor Dillamond in early drafted scenes that were cut from the final version of the musical. After over two years in the Broadway company, making him the longest-running Broadway Dillamond to date, he played his final performance October 31, 2010.

After a year away from the show and Doctor Dillamond, Parker returned to the role in the Second National US Tour company, marking his fourth North American production. He replaced Martin Moran on December 20, 2011, and he played his last show on September 30, 2012. From March 20 through April 14, 2013, he returned to the first touring production, where he created the role in 2005, covering in the absence of Clifton Davis.

On September 23, 2014, he returned to the show on Broadway, replacing K. Todd Freeman as Doctor Dillamond and played his final performance on January 31, 2016.

Naked Angels Along with eleven other theater artists, including his brother Pippin Parker, Toby co-founded Naked Angels Theater Company in New York City in 1986. It operated out of a defunct picture-frame factory on Seventeenth Street and attracted actors including Marisa Tomei, Fisher Stevens, and Gina Gershon. “Everybody hung around Naked Angels,” Parker said in a 2023 profile in The New Yorker. This group included Matthew Broderick, who would later marry his sister Sarah Jessica Parker.