Patrick Dempsey’s First Wife – Rochelle Rocky Parker Wiki (Bio, Death, Kids, Family)
You must have heard it several times that age is just a number and must have seen many such relations. One such relation was the short but cute relationship of late Rocky Parker & Patrick Dempsey. Patrick who was famous as Dr McDreamy had killer looks and possessed elegant personality & charm. However, he had fallen in love with a woman who was 26 years older.
However, the 26 years gap was not a botheration at all, both the partners, made it work. It was just that it did not last for a much longer time and did not have a happy ending. The duo separated 7 years into the marriage. Later she passed away at the age of 74. She left her fans very sad as they would miss her onscreen work a lot.
In this article you will come to know about the model, actress, director and coach known as Rocky Parker. She was the woman who lived her life which was true to herself. You will know about her relation to Dempsey. All the information is mentioned here.
Early Life of Rocky Parker
She was born on February 26, 1940 as Rochelle Natalie Parker. Her parents are Bernard Parker and Shirley Parker. They lived in Brooklyn, New York. Rocky’s mother, Shirley was an actress who was also known for The Minx & Mission Mars.
Hopkinson Avenue is where she had spent most of her childhood days. She used to live here with her family. However, they later moved to Bayside, Queens in 1949. Her primary education was completed at Martin Buren High School, which was in Queens. Apart from that there is no information about her education.
How Rocky Kickstarter her Career?
When you are living at a place which is always filled with celebrities, it is very easy to become one with ease. This is also the same thing which happened to Rocky.
Rocky was just 7 when she found that her aunt Ida who used to work at Movie Star Slips was supposed to bring pajamas and clothes of models and many other things to try on. She loved to wear those costumes and felt like a movie star. She went to watch Broadway shows with her aunt around the city. She loved watching them on the stage. When she wore those dresses, it made her realize how badly she wanted to be in Hollywood. It is when she realized what she wanted to do in her life.
She decides to audition for High School Performing Arts in Manhattan. She got in very easily. However, her mother denied her the permission, because her family was living in Bayside and it would be difficult for her to travel to Manhattan.
At the young age of 17 she began her career as her model. The first modelling assignment which she received was for magazines such as True Romance in the 50’s. She also did many print ads. She also became a part of the Virginia Slim Campaign known as You’ve Come a Long Way Baby.
When she gained some fame, she started to work in the 60’s. Her debut play was named “The Company” where she had a role of an Imposters Imposter by Susan Batson. She also acted in dramas such as Miss Julie, What’s So Beautiful About A Sunset Over Prairie Avenue? Chuck Gordon, The Last Chord and many others.
She finally started to work for Broadway in a show called The Survivor with David Marshall, Grant and Zeljko Ivanek. Later she starred in the Brighton Beach Memoirs, which had Neil Simon as the director. This was her biggest breakthrough project. The movies can be credited to her movies like Boxing Helena, Can’t Buy Me Love (1987), In the Mood (1987) & Happy Together (1989).
Apart from modelling and acting, she was a co-director and director of the movie named Ava’s Magical Adventure in which she was associated with Patrick Dempsey. This movie was released in the year of 1994.
Romance beyond Ages: Parker Met Dempsey
Patrick Dempsey and Rocky Parker met in the year 1984. Rocky was 44 years old whereas Dempsey was only 18 years old, when they met each other for the first time. They saw each other during the filming of the play Brighton Beach Memoirs. He had played the role of the teen while she played his aunt in the play. The couple spent her time a lot after the rehearsals.
She had guided him a lot about how he should work on his career as an actor with each other. After being involved in intense romance for three years, they married each other on 24th August 1987. They wanted to keep their marriage a secret and also succeeded for 2 years because of their extreme age gap and they wanted to avoid scandals. It was because Parker already mothered three kids who were older than Dempsey.
They were very happy when they got married and were very supportive of each other and always tried to hide each other’s flaws. Both of them went to NYU film school. The career started to bloom for Dempsey. To be honest this is when his relation with Rocky got worse. They could manage to keep the marriage for seven years. Soon Parker filed a divorce.
Divorce Battle & Allegations
Rocky’s married life started to fall apart in the early 1992. The couple filed for divorce and decided to separate in 1994 after a lengthy & gruesome battle for divorce. Rocky made allegations against Dempsey for mental & physical abuse while they were on the set of the movie ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’. She said that he used to beat her so much that she later developed arthritis. She stated:
While we were on the set of his movie Can’t Buy Me Love, he beat me because he claimed he wanted to see what it was like to beat up a woman. I now suffer from arthritis in my hand from where the Respondent injured me.
Patrick never accepted the allegations. Rocky’s lawyers could never prove the allegations against Dempsey. It became a very lengthy and ugly battle for divorce. However, the court provided them the much-awaited divorce in 1994. It was in 2006 that Rocky withdrew her allegations against Patrick.
Both Rocky and Patrick moved on with their respective lives after their first marriage failed. Dempsey is now married to Jillian Fink.
Rocky Parker’s Romance & Marriages before Meeting Patrick:
Rocky never had a calm and steady marriage. In her lifetime she married three times and all of them had failed. Her first husband was Sheldon Leonard Stein. She got married on August 21st, 1958. She was just 19 when she got married. David Alan was born on August 14, 1959, he was her first child. Davide never got a normal childhood as his parents got divorced soon after he was born.
After her divorce with Sheldon, in 1964, she got married to a man known as John Hass. Soon after the marriage Corey Parker Hass was born. This marriage even did not last long as John died. She then got involved romantically to Patrick Dempsey, both had a huge age gap. They got married on August 24th, 1987. Patrick was only 21 years old & she was 47 when they exchanged the vows. Before her marriage to Patrick, she was romantically involved with a man named Nick Ferri. Noelle Parker was born on December 25th, 1979, she was her third child with Ferri even if they were not married to each other.
