Donald Westlake, using the pseudonym Richard Stark, published 24 books starring Parker, a master thief who plows through trouble with the steely efficiency of a bandsaw. A handful of those novels were adapted into movies, all of them starring different actors as Parker—with wildly varying results. Some are classics, and others are best left to the DVD remainder bin.
In that spirit, perhaps it’s time to rank the film world’s best Parkers. Keep in mind that this list is merely one Parker obsessive’s totally subjective breakdown of the best actors to take the role; your own mileage may vary. (Note for completionists: we’re disregarding Godard’s “Made in USA,” which was an unauthorized adaptation, and Cavalier’s “Mise à Sac,” focusing primarily on English-language adaptations.)
1. Lee Marvin
It almost goes without saying: Lee Marvin’s performance in “Point Blank” (1967), based on “The Hunter,” is the canonical version of Parker onscreen, and not just because the actor loosely resembles Westlake’s physical description of the thief. Marvin was a World War II veteran who’d seen combat, in addition to being a naturally terrifying dude, and he effortlessly sells the rage and violence as Parker storms after the people who stole his cut of a big heist. His darkness also keeps the movie grounded as it drifts from gritty crime thriller into more surreal, hallucinatory territory.
(It’s worth noting that Marvin’s character in the movie is named “Walker,” because Westlake refused to let producers use the Parker name unless a studio adapted more of the books; this logjam would only break up after Westlake’s death, when Jason Statham got to use “Parker” for the eponymous movie.)
2. Robert Duvall
In “The Outfit” (1973), very loosely adapted from the Parker novel of the same name, Duvall effortlessly captures a significant component of the master thief’s character: his business-like approach to his job, the constant calculations, the utter disregard for niceties. When he lights a cigarette and gives someone a cool side-eye, you can practically see his mind working out the angles. Duvall doesn’t have the bone-crushing presence of Lee Marvin, and he fires a gun like someone who’s never pulled a trigger in his life, but you buy him as someone who ultimately cares only about pulling off big scores for a living.
3. Mel Gibson
The version of Parker that Gibson plays in “Payback” (1999), yet another adaptation of “The Hunter,” starts out as remarkably similar to his literary counterpart. Both book and movie kick off with Parker striding into New York City and engaging in various petty crimes to earn money; he goes from destitute drifter to a man with a suit and a bankroll in record time. The “Payback” version of this sequence, if anything, tops the novel in economy and pacing, and even injects some vicious humor into the proceedings.
From there, however, things fall apart. The movie underwent extensive reshoots, complete with a new ending, probably because the studio was concerned that audiences wouldn’t turn out for an ice-cold sociopath. Midway through, Parker transforms into a typical Gibson anti-hero: lethal at moments, sure, but inclined to quip, mug, and win the lady at the end. By the final minutes, he’s not Parker anymore so much as a criminal variation on Martin Riggs, Gibson’s famous character from the “Lethal Weapon” series.
There’s a bit of an asterisk here, though. Eight years after “Payback” rolled out in theaters, director Brian Helgeland issued a director’s cut that’s much closer to the original novel in plot and tone. In this variation, Gibson is genuinely Parker-esque all the way through, perhaps enough to bump him to second on this list behind Lee Marvin. But it’s also not a cut that many people saw, aside from film nerds and crime-fiction junkies, so we’re awarding no additional points here.
4. Jason Statham
It’s easy to knock Statham’s acting skills; this is a guy who’s better-known for his lightning-fast roundhouse kicks than his ability to subtly emote. But in “Parker” (2013), based on the novel “Flashfire,” his acting style (or lack thereof) works in his favor as he grimly crunches his way through the Florida underworld—you buy him as someone hardboiled enough to not react overly much to blood and chaos (“No coffee after seven,” he replies when a shocked character asks him how he sleeps at night).
If there’s a knock against the film, it’s that Statham’s Parker spends too long engaging in drawn-out, punishing brawls with other criminals; one of the grim pleasures of Westlake’s original novels is how quickly and effortlessly Parker wrecks everyone in his path, often with a single gunshot.
5. Jim Brown
As a movie, “The Split” (1968) is a bit of a tragedy: you have some of the best actors of the 1960s, from Gene Hackman and Donald Sutherland to Warren Oates and Ernest Borgnine, all working together; it’s too bad they’re all working with mediocre script and direction. Jim Brown plays a solid Parker (named McClain for this outing), but the material’s so weak it undermines even his unstoppable charisma and physicality.
6. Peter Coyote
Maybe I’m biased because “Slayground” is a top-three Parker novel for me, but its cinematic adaptation (released in 1983) is a disappointing affair. Peter Coyote does a serviceable job as a thief (named “Stone” this time around), but he’s a galaxy away from Parker’s mannerisms—he loses his cool, he’s not calculating in the same way as Parker in the original novel, and so on. Which is too bad, because the novel deserves a great adaptation—it’s essentially “Die Hard” in an amusement park, with Parker forced into the uncomfortable position of reacting instead of plotting as his enemies close in.
7. Mark Wahlberg
Writer/director Shane Black is a man who knows his classic noir, and he’s crafted some crime-film classics of his own, including “The Nice Guys” (2016) and “Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang” (2005). So you might have been excused for harboring high hopes for his “Play Dirty” (2025), which makes the bold move of borrowing elements from multiple Parker novels. It features Mark Wahlberg as Parker, and because Wahlberg’s played plenty criminals and thugs in his long career, you might have also thought he’d be a serviceable Parker at the very least.
Alas, “Play Dirty” is a huge mess. The heists are unbelievable, and not in a good way (exploding mega-vaults! crashing subway trains! a chase in the middle of a horse racetrack!). Wahlberg must not have internalized the source material, because his Parker shows fear and weakness, gets upset, and makes a weird mess of seemingly everything he touches. Instead of an icy thief, you have a bug-eyed Marky Mark yelling like a shift manager at Dunkin who’s realized the drive-thru is backed up. It’s a splattery waste of talent.
