Background
He was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and has lived in Australia since the late 1970s.
He was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and has lived in Australia since the late 1970s.
He first became known during the mid-to-late 1970s for portraying a laconic farmer called Fred Dagg on stage, film and television.
Clarke also became known for his screenwriting when, in 1982, he was nominated for an AFI award for co-writing the acclaimed Paul Cox film Lonely Hearts. He also co-wrote the mini-series Anzacs and provided the voice of Wal Footrot in the feature-length animated film, Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale (1986), based on the comic strips by Murray Ball. Towards the end of the 1980s, he featured in a number of other films, and began to be known for his political satire.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Clarke featured in several films, Never Say Die, alongside New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison, Death in Brunswick, alongside another New Zealand Actor Sam Neill and Blood Oath (released in some countries as Prisoners of the Sun). Over the next five years, he continued to write and act in a handful of films, on top of his continuing series of mock interviews.
In 1984 Clarke was part of the Australian ABCTV series The Gillies Report, starring Max Gillies. Among the highlights of this satire were Clarke's straight-faced reports on the fictional sport of 'Farnarkeling'.