Background
Clark was born Bernard Zanville in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish immigrants, Samuel, a sporting goods store owner, and his wife, Rose.
Clark was born Bernard Zanville in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish immigrants, Samuel, a sporting goods store owner, and his wife, Rose.
He graduated from Cornell University and earned a law degree at Saint John"s University School of Law in Queens, New New York
The date of birth is a matter of dispute, amongst different sources. During the Great Depression, he worked as a boxer, baseball player, construction worker, and model. 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 lieutenant" 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.
Clark got his big break when he was signed by Warner Brothers in 1943. According to Clark, Bogart gave him his stage name.
He also played a surly artist opposite Bette Davis in A Stolen Life. Exhibitors voted Clark the 16th most popular star at the United States box office in 1945, and during the 1950s, he became one of a small group of actors (excluding the original "founding" members brought in at the Studio"s inception) awarded life membership in The Actors Studio.
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.
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, with Gary Merrill in the role of Jason Tyler, in the National Broadcasting Company crime drama Justice, about attorneys of the Legal Aid Society of New New York 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, Columbia Broadcasting System"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. 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.
Five Days (aka Paid to Kill) Murder by Proxy (aka Blackout).