Imboden Parrish was born on March 14, 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA to George and Etelka Parrish, as George Imboden Parrish. He was an actor, known for The Blue Bird (1940), Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939) and Brigham Young (1940).

Imboden moved from Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles as a young boy when his father, Dr. George Parrish, was appointed Los Angeles City Health Commissioner. Imboden attended Hollywood High School, and later graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with degrees in Civil, Mechanical, and Hydraulic Engineering. At the outbreak of World War II, he left the film industry and went to work for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation as an airplane design engineer, working on the Hudson Bomber and the P-38 Lightning Fighter, and the Super Constellation airliner. After the war, he continued his successful engineering career with several other companies, ending with work on the Surveyor Moon Lander. He was married to Martha Baird on May 20, 1944 in Los Angeles, with whom he had two sons. He died peacefully in his home on December 31, 1982 in Tustin, California, and is buried in Forest Lawn, Glendale, California.