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Dane Clark

 
Actor: Dane Clark
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Feb 18, 1915 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
  • Died: Sep 11, 1998 in Los Angeles, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '40s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Crime
  • Career Highlights: Deep Valley, A Stolen Life, Pride of the Marines
  • First Major Screen Credit: Destination Tokyo (1943)

Biography

A Brooklynite from head to toe, Dane Clark never completely forsook his streetwise pugnacity, not even while attending Cornell and John Hopkins, and earning a law degree from St. John's University. Clark held down several Depression-era jobs--road gang worker, boxer, ballplayer, magazine model--before making his first stage appearance in 1938. Four years later, he made his entree into films, at first using his given name of Bernard Zanville (sometimes spelled Zaneville). Signed by Warner Bros. in 1943, Clark was given a new professional name and purpose in life: as potential replacement for Warners' resident "tenement tough" John Garfield. Since there was plenty of life left in the original Garfield, however, Clark was largely confined to secondary roles, usually as the hero's best friend or the cocky troublemaker from Brooklyn. As the 1940s drew to a close, Clark was afforded a few leading roles by Warners, though it was while on loan-out to Republic that he delivered his finest performance, as emotionally overwrought accidental murderer Danny Hawkins in Moonrise (1948). His film appearances were fewer and farther between in the 1950s, as he sought out more rewarding roles on television and the Broadway stage. He did get to play Harlem Globetrotters maven Abe Saperstein in the 1954 feature Go, Man, Go, but he also had to produce the film himself. On TV, Clark starred as news correspondent Dan Miller on the weekly adventure series Wire Service (1956), and played hotel owner Slate Shannon on the 1959 TV version of the old Bogart-Bacall radio series Bold Venture. He also co-starred as Lt. Tragg on the ill-advised New Perry Mason (1973), and made innumerable guest appearances on such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables and Ellery Queen (1975 version). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Dane Clark
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Dane Clark

from the trailer for Whiplash (1948)
Born Bernard Zanville
disputed date (see "Early Life")
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died 11 September 1998 (aged between 83 and 86)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Years active 1940–1989
Spouse(s) Geraldine Zanville (1971-1998) (his death)
Margot Yoder (1941-1970) (her death)

Dane Clark (disputed date between 1912 and 1915 - September 11, 1998) was an American film actor who was known for playing, as he labeled himself, "Joe Average".[1]

Contents

Early life

Bernard Zanville was born in Brooklyn, New York. His date of birth is a matter of dispute between sources: the three most frequently shown dates are 26 February 1912, 18 February 1913, and 18 February 1915.

He graduated from Cornell University and earned a law degree at St. John's University School of Law in Queens, New York. During the Great Depression, he worked as a boxer, baseball player, construction worker, and model.[1]

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 it [sic] give it a try myself, just to show them anyone could do it."[1]

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.[1] 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 (1943), his breakthrough part, opposite Humphrey Bogart, Destination Tokyo (1943) with Cary Grant, and Pride of the Marines (1945) with friend and fellow New Yorker John Garfield. According to Clark, Bogart gave him his stage name.[1]

Clark played Peter Chambers in the short-lived radio show Crime and Peter Chambers, a half-hour show that aired from April 6 to September 7, 1954. He also guest starred on a number of television shows, including The Twilight Zone, in the episode "The Prime Mover". He played Lieutenant Tragg in the short-lived revival of the Perry Mason television series in 1973.

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Lawrence Van Gelder (September 16, 1998). "Dane Clark, Actor, 85, Dies; Starred in World War II Films". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE6DD1131F935A2575AC0A96E958260. Retrieved 2008-05-25. 

External links

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Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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