Gage Clarke (also credited as Gage Clark; March 3, 1900 – October 23, 1964) was an American stage, television, and film
character actor.
["Gage Clarke, Actor, Dies", obituary, ''Los Angeles Times'', October 24, 1964, part 1, p. 16. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.] The first half of his career was dedicated to the theatre, predominantly to
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
productions, while television and film roles dominated his work during the latter half of his career.
["Gage Clark"](_blank)
theatre credits, IBDB. Retrieved March 22, 2019. Among his memorable television roles is his portrayal of the fastidious school official "Mr. Bascomb" during the 1952–1953 broadcast season of the
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
''
Mister Peepers
''Mister Peepers'' is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from July 3, 1952, to June 12, 1955.
Overview
Wally Cox starred as Robinson J. Peepers, Jefferson City's junior high school science teacher. Others in the cast included Tony Randall a ...
'' starring
Wally Cox
Wallace Maynard Cox (December 6, 1924 – February 15, 1973) was an American actor. He began his career as a standup comedian and then became the title character of the popular early U.S. television series ''Mister Peepers'' from 1952 to 19 ...
. Clarke also performed in many other television series produced between 1949 and the early 1960s, most prominently ''
Maverick
Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to:
History
* Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick
Aviation
* AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design
* General Aviation Design Burea ...
'' and ''
Gunsmoke'', as well as in more than a dozen Hollywood
features.
["Gage Clarke, the Principal On 'Mr. Peepers' TV Show"](_blank)
obituary, ''The New York Times'', October 25, 1964.
Early life
Born in Vassar, Michigan in 1900, Gage was the only child of Metta L. (née Gage) and George D. Clarke, who worked as a bookkeeper and later as a bank cashier in the town of Vassar.
["Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910"](_blank)
Vassar Township, Michigan, April 15–16, 1910. FamilySearch
FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records, education, and software. It is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and is closely connected with the church's Family Hist ...
. Retrieved March 17, 2019. Gage in September 1918 registered with the United States military draft in his hometown, but World War I ended before he could enter service.
Two years later, in January 1920, the federal census shows that Gage was not employed and was still living with his parents in Vassar; but by 1929 he had relocated to New York City, where he was performing in major Broadway productions.
Stage
In November and December 1929, Clarke portrayed Geoffry in the Broadway production of ''A Ledge'' presented at the Assembly Theatre. He then had parts in the 1931 plays ''The Venetian Glass Nephew'' and ''Devil in the Mind''.
["Gage Clarke Broadway and Theatre Credits"](_blank)
BroadwayWorld, Wisdom Digital Media, 2019. Retrieved March 21, 2019. The next year he had a significant role in ''The Inside Story'', directed by A. H. Van Buren at the
National Theatre, and in 1933-1934 he played Buck Buckner in ''Jezebel'' starring
Miriam Hopkins
Ellen Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) was an American actress known for her versatility. She first signed with Paramount Pictures in 1930.
Her best-known roles included a pickpocket in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy '' T ...
at the
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a Broadway theater at 241 West 47th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1928, it was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in the Elizabethan, Mediterranean, and Adam styles ...
.
[Green, Abel (1933)]
"Plays on Broadway: Jezebel"
review, ''Variety'' (New York), December 26, 1933, p. 44. Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
. Retrieved March 16, 2019. In his review of ''Jezebel'' at the time,
Abel Green Abel Green (June 3, 1900 – May 10, 1973) was an American journalist best known as the editor of ''Variety'' for forty years. Sime Silverman first hired Green as a reporter in 1918, and Green's byline first appeared on May 30, 1919.
Biography
...
of the
trade paper
A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for this ...
''Variety'' is critical of the play's script, but he commends the cast's performances and includes Clarke among the production's "outstanders".
Clarke for the remainder of the 1930s continued to act in a variety of other Broadway productions such as ''Lost Horizons'', ''Parnell'', ''Many Mansions'', ''The Monocled Man'', ''Tomorrow's a Holiday'', ''Escape This Night'', ''Summer Night'', ''Great Lady'', and ''I Know What I Like''.
In the 1937 play ''Many Mansions''—described as a "dignified invective against the church"—Clarke again received very favorable reviews for his central role as Reverend Roger Crandall.
When the United States entered World War II, Clarke was 41 years old, still eligible for induction into military service. He therefore joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and served in the
Transportation Corps
The Transportation Corps is a combat service support branch of the U.S. Army. It is responsible for the movement of personnel and material by truck, rail, air, and sea. It is one of three U.S. Army logistics branches, the others being the Qua ...
as a private in Company B of the 487th Port Battalion, which was initially deployed to Europe to supply troops for the allied
invasion of France
France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans.
* the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...
in 1944. After the war he resumed his acting career, although in the late 1940s he began to focus increasingly on obtaining roles in the new, rapidly expanding medium of commercial television. Yet, Clarke continued to return periodically to the stage. In 1950 and 1951, for example, he performed again on Broadway in the role of Dr. Gagnon in ''The Happy Time'' at the
Plymouth Theatre. In its review of that play's opening night, ''Variety'' yet again highlights his performance, reporting that "Gage Clarke is expertly comic as a
querulous
In the legal profession and courts, a querulant (from the Latin ''querulus'' - "complaining") is a person who obsessively feels wronged, particularly about minor causes of action. In particular the term is used for those who repeatedly petition a ...
, disheveled
sawbones
Sawbones may refer to:
* Sawbones, slang for a surgeon
* Sawbones, an artificial bone developed by Pacific Research Laboratories
* ''Sawbones'' (podcast), a 2013 podcast distributed by Maximum Fun
* ''Sawbones'' (film), a 1995 American film
Se ...
".
Television
Clarke's earliest credited television roles date from 1949, when he performed in the sitcom ''
The Hartmans'', in the
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
episode "Goodbye New York" for the
anthology series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a dif ...
''
Suspense'', and in six installments of ''
Kraft Television Theatre''. Over the next 15 years he was cast as a supporting player in dozens of other series and often multiple times on episodes of some of the most popular television shows of the 1950s and early 1960s. A few of those series are ''
Mister Peepers
''Mister Peepers'' is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from July 3, 1952, to June 12, 1955.
Overview
Wally Cox starred as Robinson J. Peepers, Jefferson City's junior high school science teacher. Others in the cast included Tony Randall a ...
'', ''
Lux Video Theatre
''Lux Video Theatre'' is an American television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1957. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.
Overview
The ''Lux Vid ...
'', ''
Maverick
Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to:
History
* Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick
Aviation
* AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design
* General Aviation Design Burea ...
'', ''
The Real McCoys
''The Real McCoys'' is an American situation comedy starring Walter Brennan, Richard Crenna, and Kathleen Nolan. Co-produced by Danny Thomas's Marterto Productions in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's Westgate Company, ...
'', The Twilight Zone episode One More Pallbearer, ''
Alfred Hitchcock Presents'', ''
Perry Mason
(The Case of the Nine Dolls)'', and the long-running western ''
Gunsmoke''. Arguably his most prominent role was in the
comedic episode of ''Maverick'' titled "Greenbacks Unlimited," in which he shares extremely extensive screen time with
James Garner
James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including ''The Great Escape (film), The Great Escape'' (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy ...
. On ''Gunsmoke'' he performed as various characters in 12 episodes between 1956 and 1963, although most often in the roles of Dodge City's hotel clerk Mr. Dobie and the town's bank manager Mr. Botkin. By the end of 1963, Clarke began to curtail his work as his health declined. His final television performance is on another Western series, ''
Destry'', in the 1964 episode "The Last Girl from Gemmorah", which aired on
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
seven months before Clarke's death.
Film
Clarke's work in films began relatively late in his acting career, so his credits on the "big screen" are not as extensive as those for his performances in the theatre or on television. His first notable film roles are 1956 releases, both psychological thrillers: ''
Nightmare'' in which he plays the villain and ''
The Bad Seed
''The Bad Seed'' is a 1954 novel by American writer William March, the last of his major works published before his death.
Nominated for the 1955 National Book Award for Fiction, ''The Bad Seed'' tells the story of a mother's realization that h ...
'' in which he portrays Reginald Tasker, a mystery writer and amateur
criminologist
Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...
. In his final film, ''
The Monkey's Uncle
''The Monkey's Uncle'' is a 1965 American comedy film starring Tommy Kirk as genius college student Merlin Jones and Annette Funicello (former Mouseketeer from ''The Mickey Mouse Club'') as his girlfriend, Jennifer. The title plays on the idiom ...
'', he portrays another school official, a college president. That
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
production was released nationally in August 1965, 10 months after Clarke's death.
Personal life and death
Clarke never married. On October 23, 1964, he died of lung cancer at the
Motion Picture Country Hospital
The Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) is a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries and their families with limited or no resources, including services such as temp ...
in
Woodland Hills, California
Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.
Geography
Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is located east of Ca ...
at the age of 64.
His obituaries report that he had "no immediate survivors".
His gravesite is at the same cemetery where his parents are buried, at Riverside Cemetery in Vassar, Michigan.
Riverside Cemetery in Vassar, Michigan
"Gage E. Clarke". Interment.net, Clear Digital Media, Inc.; Retrieved March 22, 2019.
Filmography
References and notes
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Gage
1900 births
1964 deaths
20th-century American male actors
American male stage actors
American male telenovela actors
People from Vassar, Michigan
People from Tuscola County, Michigan
Male actors from Michigan