Francis Jameson Parker Jr. (born November 18, 1947) is an American actor, best known as the co-star of the 1980s television series Simon & Simon. Parker was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 18, 1947. He attended St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., and a Swiss prep school. He studied drama at Beloit College and acted in student theater productions. While living in Washington, D.C., he landed a job with a production of The Great White Hope at the Arena Stage and then acted in theatrical productions of Caligula and Indians. After completing his degree at Beloit in 1971, he performed in dinner theater and summer stock in the Washington, D.C., area. In 1972, he moved to New York City, where he secured several television commercials and appeared in off-Broadway plays. He was cast as Dale Robinson in the daytime drama Somerset. He also created the original Brad Vernon on One Life to Live. Parker made his motion picture debut in The Bell Jar (1979) and starred in A Small Circle of Friends (1980), in which he played one of three radical college students during the 1960s. The United Artists film received a limited theatrical release and grossed under $1 million.