Ken Clark (actor)

Kenneth Donovan "Ken" 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.

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.

Screen career
Originally contracted to 20th Century Fox, Clark's most prominent role in American film was Stewpot in South Pacific (1958), in which Clark figures importantly in two musical sequences, "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" (for which he was dubbed by Thurl Ravenscroft), and an amateur Thanksgiving show in which he presents a strongman act.

Clark made many guest star appearances on a variety of American TV shows, including four appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1959, he made an unsold private investigator TV pilot Brock Callahan directed by Don Siegel and written by Stirling Silliphant. During this period Clark had the lead in Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) and 12 to the Moon (1960).

During the 1960s like many other American actors Clark went to Italy appearing in several sword and sandal films, spaghetti westerns and Eurospy films beginning with Re Manfredi (1961).

Personal life and death
Clark was married to Bette Blatt, whom he met when they were in high school. They had three children and were divorced in 1980.

According to fellow actor Robert Woods, Mr. Clark died of a heart attack in Rome, Italy on June 1, 2009 shortly after a taping for a program on the mid 1960s Eurospy genre on the TV series Stracult.

Partial filmography

 * On the Threshold of Space (1956) - Sgt. Ike Forbes
 * The Proud Ones (1956) - Pike
 * The Last Wagon (1956) - Sergeant
 * Between Heaven and Hell (1956) - Morgan
 * Love Me Tender (1956) - Mr. Kelso
 * The True Story of Jesse James (1957) - Sergeant (uncredited)
 * South Pacific (1958) - Stewpot
 * The Shaggy Dog (1959) - FBI agent (uncredited)
 * Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) - Steve Benton
 * Heller in Pink Tights (1960) - Soldier Warning the Travelers (uncredited)
 * 12 to the Moon (1960) - Captain John Anderson
 * Re Manfredi / King Manfred (1961) - Astolfo
 * Hercules Against the Mongols (1963) - Sayan
 * Jacob and Esau (1963) - Esau
 *  / None But the Lonely Spy (1964) - Robert Liston
 * Hercules the Invincible (1964) - Kabol
 *  / FX 18 Secret Agent (1964) - Francis Coplan
 * Hercules Against the Barbarians (1964) - Kubilai
 * The Road to Fort Alamo (1964) - Bud Massidy
 * Agent 077: Mission Bloody Mary (1965) - Dick Malloy
 * Agent 077: From the Orient with Fury (1965) - Dick Malloy
 *  / Savage Gringo / Gunman Called Nebraska (1966) - Nebraska
 * Special Mission Lady Chaplin (1966) - Dick Malloy
 * Tiffany Memorandum (1967) - Dick Hallam
 * Desert Commandos (1967) - Captain Fritz Schoeller
 * The Fuller Report (1968) - Dick Worth
 * Tarzana, the Wild Girl (1969) - Glen Shipper
 * A Man Called Sledge (1970) - Floyd
 * Teste di quoio (1981) - Colonnello Stern
 * Twice in a Lifetime (1985) - Flower Man
 * Arena (1989) - Marcus