{"id":463711,"date":"2026-03-08T04:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T04:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/463711\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T04:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T04:31:09","slug":"will-and-grace-star-dead-at-60-leaving-fans-heartbroken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/463711\/","title":{"rendered":"Will and Grace star dead at 60 leaving fans heartbroken"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corey Parker played Josh in the hit sitcom alongside a host of other great roles<\/p>\n

22:07, 07 Mar 2026Updated 22:31, 07 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

\"Corey<\/p>\n

The death of Corey Parker at the age of 60 was announced tonight(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)<\/p>\n

A much-loved TV star who appeared in Will & Grace<\/a> has died, it was revealed tonight. Actor Corey Parker, who played Josh in the hit US sitcom passed away in Memphis aged 60 following a battle with cancer. The news was shared by Corey’s aunt, Emily Parker.<\/p>\n

As well as being an acting coach, Corey had a recurring role in Will & Grace as Debra Messing<\/a>‘s character Grace Adler\u2019s boyfriend as well as a string of TV and film appearances, among them the BBC’s Lost Language of Cranes in the 1990s and the sitcom Flying Blind, in which he starred with Tea Leoni.<\/p>\n

He had a creative upbringing. His mother Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Parker, who was married to Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey<\/a> in the 1980s and 90s, and his sister Noelle both had notable acting careers.<\/p>\n

\"Corey<\/p>\n

Corey Parker died in Memphis, his aunt Emily Parker said(Image: IMDB)<\/p>\n

Corey’s students and friends launched a GoFundMe to support him, saying he learnt he had advanced stage 4 metastatic cancer but had become ineligible for medical insurance through his union. It has raised more than $57,000 (\u00a342,000) to date.<\/p>\n

It read: “Corey is in extreme pain and unable to continue working during this time. His family is now navigating the financial strain of self-pay medical bills, while continuing to work full-time, all while supporting Corey as he fights this battle.<\/p>\n

“We love this man, this artist, this teacher. There is no one like him. This situation feels like a bad dream, and we can only imagine the challenges his family is facing right now.”<\/p>\n

\"Patrick<\/p>\n

Patrick Dempsey, Tyrone Power, Jr. and Corey Parker in 1989 (Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

One Corey’s first acting gigs came in the horror film Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning, part of the long-running franchise, where he played the character Pete. He later starred in the Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke film 9 and a Half Weeks.<\/p>\n

In recent years he moved into coaching young actors and worked on the Marvel series Ms. Marvel, about a 16-year-old who loves the Avengers and finds she’s developed powers of her own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corey Parker played Josh in the hit sitcom alongside a host of other great roles 22:07, 07 Mar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[243,6491,96,99335,166374,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-463711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bbc","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-sitcoms","tag-tea-leoni","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}