- Born
- Died
- Birth nameBernard Elliot Zanville
- Nicknames
- Brooklyn
- Joe Average
- Height1.75 m
- Dane Clark was born Bernard Elliot Zanville in Brooklyn, New York City, to Rose (Korostoff) and Samuel Zanville, who were Russian Jewish immigrants. He graduated from Cornell University and St. John's Law School (Brooklyn). When he had trouble finding work in the mid-1930s he tried boxing, baseball, construction, sales and modeling, among other jobs. From there he went into acting on Broadway ("Dead End", "Stage Door", "Of Mice and Men"), which finally brought him to Hollywood. He acted under his own name until 1943 when, as Dane Clark (a name he said was given him by Humphrey Bogart), he took the role of sailor Johnnie Pulaski in Warner's Convoi vers la Russie (1943), a wartime tribute to the Merchant Marine. He was a regular in World War II movies, playing the part of a submariner in Destination Tokyo (1943), an airman in Bombes sur Hong-Kong (1945) and a Marine in La route des ténèbres (1945).
Though he co-starred with such luminaries as Bogart, Cary Grant, Bette Davis and Raymond Massey, it was his self-described "Joe Average" image that got him his parts: "They don't go much for the 'pretty boy' type [at Warner Brothers]. An average-looking guy like me has a chance to get someplace, to portray people the way they really are, without any frills." He was also proud of his role as Abe Saperstein, who founded the Harlem Globetrotters black basketball team, in Go Man Go (1954), a film he believed pioneered in opposing race hatred.- IMDb mini biography by: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu> (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
- SpousesGeraldine Frankel(1970 - September 11, 1998) (his death)Margaret Catherine (Margot) Yoder(April 24, 1941 - March 16, 1970) (her death)
- Upon the death of his first wife, Clark had every painting she ever created sent from New York to California where he had them displayed throughout his home for the remainder of his life.
- In 1955 he was starring in a stage production of "The Shrike" at the old Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles with Isabel Bonner who died unexpectedly in his arms during a love scene from a sudden brain hemorrhage.
- In 1996 director James Cameron called Clark at his California home asking him if he'd be interested to come out of retirement to star as Captain Edward John Smith in Titanic (1997) but he declined the offer based on health issues.
- He was an avid bowler who was known to seldom miss a strike. He was so successful at this sport that in his home he used two spare rooms to hold his large trophy collection.
- In an interview he said that he and Ida Lupino fell in love and became engaged while shooting Deep Valley (1947). She took him home to meet her family. He said he had such an adverse reaction to them--calling them "leeches and freeloaders"--that he called off the wedding.
- [In 1946, about being signed by Warner Brothers] That was the best break of my life, hooking up with the Warners. They don't go much for the "pretty boy" type there. An average-looking guy like me has a chance to get someplace, to portray people the way they really are, without any frills.
- The only thing I want to do in films is be Mr. Joe Average as well as I know how. Of course, anyone whose face appears often enough on the screen is bound to have bobby-soxers after him for autographs. But what I really get a kick out of is when cab drivers around New York lean out and yell 'Hi Brooklyn' when I walk by. They make me feel I'm putting it across O.K. when I try to be Joe Average.
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