Denise Parker

Denise Parker, an actress and the widow of the abstract painter Ray Parker, who lived in New York’s Greenwich Village and East Hampton, died on Jan. 20 at New York-Presbyterian Hospital following a stroke. She was 86.

Ms. Parker was born on Sept. 17, 1928, in Grand Forks, N.D., to Maurice Griffin and the former Pearl Wentz. She grew up there, and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Goodman Theatre, also in Chicago. She then moved to New York, where she acted in television dramas at the DuMont Television Network and in many commercials. Her Broadway debut came in 1952 in the musical “Wish You Were Here.”

In New York, she met Mr. Parker, who was a longtime professor at Hunter College, when a mutual acquaintance brought him to a production in which she was appearing. They married in 1953. She was a devoted wife and mother, said her daughter Kate Parker. Mr. Parker, whose work is shown at the Washburn Gallery in New York, died in 1990.

The couple began visiting the South Fork in the 1950s, her daughter said. On their first visit, they attended a celebrated August 1954 croquet party at the Bridgehampton house rented by the artists Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Franz Kline. They became regular visitors until finally buying a house in 1965 in the Hampton Waters neighborhood. There, “she loved playing the piano, singing Faure with her daughter, and watching her beloved white heron in the trees across the water,” her daughter said.

Ms. Parker appeared in the 1959 film “Pull My Daisy,” directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie. The short film was adapted by Jack Kerouac from his play “Beat Generation” and starred poets, writers, and musicians including Allen Ginsberg, Larry Rivers, and Alice Neel.

Ms. Parker conceived and organized Artists for Amnesty, a 1990 exhibition and sale of contemporary art to benefit Amnesty International that was held at the Blum Helman and Germans Van Eck galleries in New York. More than 100 notable artists were featured in the exhibition. “It was for a great cause that she really believed in, and it was very successful,” said her daughter. “That was a major achievement.”

In addition to Kate Parker, another daughter, Caroline Parker, survives. Both live in New York City and East Hampton. Kevin Moore, Ms. Parker’s son-in-law, who her family said was like a son to her, also survives, as does a granddaughter. Her two sisters died before her.

A memorial service is being planned, but details were not yet available.