John Clarke obit

R.I.P. John Clarke of The Twilight Zone and Days of Our Lives

The soap opera legend was 88.

He was not on the list.


In 1965, Days of Our Lives premiered in the 2 p.m. slot. The soap opera was part of a daytime television schedule that included Art Linkletter's House Party, and Password. Initially a half-hour program, the drama centered around the Horton family, including middle son Mickey Horton.

John Clarke, an actor with tiny, uncredited roles in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Thin Red Line on his resume, landed the role of Mickey. He played the character for four decades. To put that in perspective, he left the soap when it was surrounded by shows like The View and Jerry Springer. Television had radically changed over the years. John Clarke had not.

For his work playing the lawyer, Clarke earned a nomination for the 1979 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series. Though he lost, he at last took home a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

Days of Our Lives dominates South Bend, Indiana native's filmography, but he appeared on plenty of familiar shows early in his career. He can be seen on Petticoat Junction ("Cave Woman") and a few episodes of Gunsmoke.

But perhaps his most memorable turn on primetime television came very early in his career in 1959, when he appeared in the fourth episode of The Twilight Zone. That tale, "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine," starred Ida Lupino as a faded film star who relives her past by projecting her classic movies in her dark mansion. With a dashing Errol Flynn mustache, Clarke appears as her love interest in the old films. He was uncredited in the episode.

In 1961, Clarke landed a lead role alongside Leslie Nielsen on The New Breed, a hip cop show from ace creator Quinn Martin, who would later produce The Fugitive, The Invaders, Cannon and Barnaby Jones.

Clarke died last week at the age of 88, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Film

    Operation Bottleneck (1961) - Sgt. Marty Regan

    You Have to Run Fast (1961) - Chuck

    Gun Street (1961) - Deputy Sheriff Sam Freed

    Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) - Prison Guard (uncredited)

    It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) - Helicopter Pilot (uncredited)

    The Thin Red Line (1964) - (uncredited)

    Finger on the Trigger (1965) - Numitah

    The Satan Bug (1965) - Lt. Raskin

    Critics and Other Freaks (1997) - Curmundgeon

Television

    Destination Space (1959, TV Movie) - Space Ship Crew

    The Twilight Zone (1959, 1 episode) - Young Jerry Hearndan

    Hawaiian Eye (1960, 1 episode) - Jablonsky

    The New Breed (1961–1962, 27 episodes) - Officer Joe Huddleston

    Death Valley Days (1960–1968, 7 episodes) - Reverend Peter Green / Fred Gilmer / Maurice Dory / Bill Crawford / Virgil Earp / Harlow / Mark Kellogg / Will Skidmore

    Days of Our Lives (1965–2004) - Mickey Horton (final appearance)