Ken Clark (actor) explained

Ken Clark
Birth Name:Kenneth Donovan Clark
Birth Date:June 4, 1927
Birth Place:Neffs, Ohio, U.S.
Death Place:Rome, Italy
Occupation:Actor
Years Active:1955 - 1998
Spouse:Bette Blatt
(19??; 1980)
Children:5, 1 step-daughter

Kenneth Donovan Clark (June 4, 1927 – June 1, 2009) was an American B movie actor. He appeared in movies in the United States and Europe, including the Secret Agent 077 trilogy, South Pacific, and a number of Spaghetti Westerns.

Early years

Clark was born in Neffs, Ohio. He enlisted in the Navy when he was 17, and after being honorably discharged, he sought a career as an actor. When that effort was unsuccessful, he found employment as a model and as a construction worker. He also worked as a coal miner in the mid 1950s near Cadiz Ohio.[1]

Acting career

Early career

Clark was originally contracted to 20th Century Fox.[2] While working for that studio, he acquired a reputation as a “beefcake” actor similar to Richard Egan. He appeared in a variety of genres of film, including crime (Six Bridges to Cross), Western (The Last Wagon), and war film (Between Heaven and Hell).[3] Additionally, in one of his final roles for Fox, he appeared in Elvis Presley’s debut motion picture, Love Me Tender. Fox dropped Clark following that picture, and his roles in the following years were often in lower-budget films.

Clark's most prominent role in American film came in 1958, when he was cast as Stewpot in South Pacific, an adaptation of the Broadway musical. His vocals were dubbed by Thurl Ravenscroft.[4] [5] Following the film’s premiere, the New York Times described Clark’s character as a “raffish gob.”[6]

During this period, Clark made many guest star appearances on a variety of American TV shows, including four appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.[7] In 1959, he made an unsold private investigator TV pilot for a William Campbell Gault-inspired mystery series entitled Brock Callahan,[8] directed by Don Siegel and written by Stirling Silliphant. That same year, he made a guest appearance in an episode of Western TV series Colt .45. During this period Clark had the lead in Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) and 12 to the Moon (1960). The former is regarded by some as Clark’s “most memorable film.”

1960s: Agent 077

During the 1960s and 1970s, like many other American actors Clark went to Italy appearing in several sword and sandal films, Spaghetti Westerns and Eurospy films, including the Hercules film The Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness, starring fellow American actor Dan Vadis, in 1963.

In 1965, Clark originated the role of Secret Agent Dick Mallory in the Agent 077 trilogy modeled on James Bond.[9] [10] In one of the pictures from that trilogy, From the East with Fury, Mallory seeks to rescue a kidnapped nuclear scientist.

1970s: Westerns

In 1971, Clark appeared alongside James Garner in Un Uomo Chiamo Slitta (translated as A Man Called Sledge).

Personal life and death

Clark was married to Bette Lola (Kruger) Blatt; a widow and her young daughter. They further had five children together and separated when he left for Europe to continue his acting career. Bette died in 1980.

According to fellow actor Robert Woods, Clark died of a heart attack in Rome, Italy on June 1, 2009, three days before his 82nd birthday, shortly after a taping for a program on the mid-1960s Eurospy genre on the TV series Starcult.

Partial filmography

Adapted from IMDb and TV Guide.[11]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Wagner . Laura . Ken Clark: Sword and Sandal Star . Films of the Golden Age . Fall 2017 . 90 . 48–49.
  2. Web site: Overview: Ken Clark. June 8, 2020. Rotten Tomatoes.
  3. Web site: Overview for Ken Clark. June 8, 2020. Turner Classic Movies.
  4. Web site: Hayes. John . The Tale of South Pacific. https://web.archive.org/web/20180725202900/http://widescreenmovies.org/WSM10/southpacific.htm. July 25, 2018. July 25, 2018. Wide Screen Movies Magazine.
  5. Book: Raymond, Jack. Show Music on Record: From the 1890s to the 1980s. 1982. F. Ungar. 978-0-8044-5774-3. en.
  6. News: Crowther. Bosley. March 20, 1958. The Screen: An Enchanted Evening; South Pacific' Has Criterion Premiere. en-US. The New York Times. June 8, 2020. 0362-4331.
  7. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0164153/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t5 Ken Clark Filmography
  8. Book: Terrace. Vincent. Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010. 2011. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Jefferson, N.C.. 978-0-7864-6477-7. 138. 2nd.
  9. Book: Adinolfi, Francesco. Mondo Exotica: Sounds, Visions, Obsessions of the Cocktail Generation. April 25, 2008. Duke University Press. 978-0-8223-8908-8. en.
  10. Book: Lisanti. Tom. Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973. Paul. Louis. April 10, 2002. McFarland. 978-0-7864-1194-8. en.
  11. Web site: Ken Clark TV Guide. June 8, 2020. TVGuide.com. en.
  12. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0508280/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1 Alfred Hitchcock Presents, episode The Dangerous People (1957)