Birthday: 1 June 1920, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Birth Name: Robert Irby Clarke
A movie-crazy kid in his native Oklahoma City, Robert Clarke decided at an early age that he wanted to be an actor, but nevertheless suffered from stage fright in his first school productions. He acted in University of Oklahoma radio plays and on stage at the University of Wisconsin before hitching a ride to California to try to break into the pict...
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A movie-crazy kid in his native Oklahoma City, Robert Clarke decided at an early age that he wanted to be an actor, but nevertheless suffered from stage fright in his first school productions. He acted in University of Oklahoma radio plays and on stage at the University of Wisconsin before hitching a ride to California to try to break into the picture business. After screen tests at 20th Century-Fox and Columbia, Clarke landed a berth as a contract player at RKO. When RKO dropped his option three years later, he began freelancing. Clarke married Alyce King of the singing The King Sisters in 1956 and, a decade later, began appearing on TV and on tour with The King Family. His autobiography, To "B" or Not to "B": A Film Actor's Odyssey, was published in 1996. Show less «
[on John Carradine] He was a true professional and he gave every bit as much working for Jerry Warre...Show more »
[on John Carradine] He was a true professional and he gave every bit as much working for Jerry Warren as he would working for Cecil B. DeMille or John Ford. He did not stint in the slightest in his performance. He was cooperative, easy to work with and he was not condescending--he was something of a star and we weren't, but he treated us as equals and fellow actors. I had great respect for him. Show less «
[about making The Astounding She-Monster (1957)] . . . the director [Ronald V. Ashcroft] planned to ...Show more »
[about making The Astounding She-Monster (1957)] . . . the director [Ronald V. Ashcroft] planned to make that feature in a week's time and I think we ended up making it in five days. THAT was the astounding part of that picture! Show less «
[about the problems on Captive Women (1952)] Part of the fault was that the director, Stuart Gilmore...Show more »
[about the problems on Captive Women (1952)] Part of the fault was that the director, Stuart Gilmore, was being given one of his first directing opportunities . . . Gilmore had been an editor for [Howard Hughes] on The Outlaw (1943); this was one of Gilmore's first pictures and he was lost. Completely. The poor man had tremendous problems: there were too many people in the cast, too many actors with no dialogue in the scenes, and then the fact that they [the producers] had overextended themselves for special effects. Show less «
