In an Edgar Allan Poe novel, Richard Parker was a sailor who survived a shipwreck but was cannibalized by some other sailors. I think that is where the author of "life of Pi" got the name.
Not a spiderman fan so I don't know how if fits there, but if Irfan Khan is also in Spiderman..... perhaps he wanted to work it in somehow.
Spider-man’s secret identity is Peter Parker, and Richard Parker is his deceased father in the movie. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, but the fact that they used the same actor and he says the name in such a distinctive way makes it seem funny to me.
Maybe the Spider-man sequel will reveal that his dad turned himself into a tiger with his genetic experiments :)