Colonel Tom Parker

Who was Colonel Tom Parker?

Colonel Thomas Andrew "Tom" Parker born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, was a Dutch-born entertainment impresario known best as the manager of Elvis Presley. Parker's management of Presley defined the role of masterminding talent management, which involved every facet of his life and was seen as central to the astonishing success of Presley's career. "The Colonel" displayed a ruthless devotion to his client's interests and took more than the traditional 10 to 15 percent of his earnings. Presley said of Parker: "I don't think I'd have ever been very big if it wasn't for him. He's a very smart man." For many years Parker falsely claimed to have been U.S.-born, but it eventually emerged that he was born in Breda in the Netherlands.