Dane Clark


Dane Clark was an American character actor who was known for playing, as he labeled himself, "Joe Average".

Early life

Clark was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants – Samuel, a sporting goods store owner, and his wife, Rose.
His actual date of birth is a matter of some dispute among different sources.
He graduated from Cornell University in 1936 and earned a law degree in 1938 at St. John's University School of Law in Queens, New York. During the Great Depression, he worked as a professional boxer, minor league baseball player, construction worker, and in modeling, among others.

Acting career

Modeling brought him in contact with people in the arts. He gradually perceived them to be snobbish, with their talk of the "theatah", and "I decided to give it a try myself, just to show them anyone could do it."

Theatre

Clark's early acting experience included work with the Group Theatre in New York City. He progressed from small Broadway parts to larger ones, eventually taking over the role of George from Wallace Ford in the 1937 production of Of Mice and Men. His other Broadway credits include Mike Downstairs, A Thousand Clowns, Fragile Fox, The Number, Dead End, Waiting For Lefty, Till the Day I Die, and Panic.

Film

Clark's first film was The Pride of the Yankees. He had an uncredited bit in The Glass Key at Paramount.

Warner Bros.

Clark got his big break when he was signed by Warner Bros. in 1943. He worked alongside some of his era's biggest stars, often in war movies such as Action in the North Atlantic, his breakthrough part, opposite Humphrey Bogart. According to Clark, Bogart gave him his stage name. Hollywood newspaper columnist Louella Parsons wrote in 1942 that Warner Bros. first changed his name to Zane Clark but then decided on Dane Clark because "Too many confused Zane Clark with Jane Clark."
He was third billed in Destination Tokyo beneath Cary Grant and John Garfield, and in The Very Thought of You with Dennis Morgan and Eleanor Parker. He had one of the leads in Hollywood Canteen, playing an actual role while most Warners stars made cameo appearances as themselves. Clark had the lead in the 1944 short film I Won't Play with Janis Paige, which received the 1945 Academy Award for Best Short Subject. Clark supported Morgan in God Is My Co-Pilot and Garfield in Pride of the Marines.
Exhibitors voted Clark the 16th most popular star at the US box office in 1945.

Leading man

Clark supported Bette Davis and Glenn Ford in A Stolen Life and was promoted to top billing for Her Kind of Man, a crime film. He followed it with That Way with Women, Deep Valley, and Embraceable You. Republic Pictures borrowed him to play the lead for Frank Borzage in Moonrise. At Warner Bros., he was in Whiplash. Clark went to United Artists for Without Honor, then back to Warner Bros. for Backfire and Barricade. He travelled to England to make Highly Dangerous and France for Gunman in the Streets. Back at Columbia he was in Never Trust a Gambler. He acted in the United Artists Western Fort Defiance. He went back to Britain for The Gambler and the Lady, Murder by Proxy and Five Days, all for Hammer Films. In the US, he was in Go Man Go with the Harlem Globetrotters and Toughest Man Alive.
During the 1950s, he became one of a small group of actors awarded life membership in the Actors Studio.

Radio, television and later films

Clark played Peter Chambers in the short-lived radio program Crime and Peter Chambers, a half-hour show which aired from April 6 to September 7, 1954.
Clark first appeared on television in the late 1940s, and after the mid-1950s worked much more in that medium than in feature films. In the 1954/1955 season, he co-starred as the character Richard Adams in the crime drama Justice.
In 1955 he was acting on stage when the female he was acting against actually died in his arms.
He went back to films for The Man Is Armed and Outlaw's Son.
In 1959, he reprised Humphrey Bogart's role as Slate in Bold Venture, a short-lived television series. He also guest starred on a number of television shows, including Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town, Appointment with Adventure, CBS's Rawhide in the episode "Incident of the Night Visitor", and The Twilight Zone, in the episode "The Prime Mover".
In 1970, he guest-starred in an episode of The Silent Force and had a role in The McMasters. That same year he appeared as Barton Ellis on The Men From Shiloh, rebranded name of the long running TV western series The Virginian in the episode titled "The Mysterious Mrs. Tate." He also played Lieutenant Tragg in the short-lived revival of the Perry Mason television series in 1973, and appeared in the 1976 miniseries Once an Eagle.

Personal life

Clark was married twice: firstly, to Margot Yoder, a painter, from 1941 until her death in 1970; and secondly, to Geraldine Frank, a former model, stockbroker, and real estate associate broker, from 1971 until his death in 1998.

Death

Clark died on September 11, 1998, of lung cancer at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. His remains were cremated and his ashes given to his widow.

Complete filmography