The Irate Bald Guy on TV

In the ‘50s and ‘60s, Fred Clark was one of those supporting actors who seemed to be everywhere. He had a pretty impressive list of film credits, including Sunset Boulevard and Auntie Mame (the less said about Sergeant Dead Head, the better) and was a regular or semi-regular on a few TV shows, while doing guest shots on others.

He told Newsday in 1964 his first paid acting job was in a play in New York in 1938. He made his first film in 1941 but couldn’t get regular work. Then came three years and 12 days in the military starting in 1943. He got out of the Army, played stock for $50 a week before Michael Curtiz cast him in The Unsuspected (released in 1947).

But it’s odd more interviews weren’t done with him. We’ll post a couple of stories, first from January 20, 1951, before he took over the role of Harry Morton on the TV version of Burns and Allen. The second is from August 19, 1962. Between those two interviews, Clark and his wife Benay Venuta were offered a “Mr. and Mrs.” type TV show which never came off, and he was signed as Daddy for an NBC-TV version of Baby Snooks which went nowhere. He revealed to Newsday he had been offered a series in 1964 playing opposite Soupy Sales. He didn’t waste time saying ‘no.’ Instead, he played opposite Red Buttons in the forgettable The Double Life of Henry Fyfe (1966). Clark died of cancer in 1968. He was only 54.

Baldie Calls on Screen Glamour Boys to Toss Away Exotic Toupees
By BOB THOMAS
Associated Press Hollywood Writer
HOLLYWOOD—Slick-topped character actor Fred Clark today called on Hollywood glamour boys to toss away their toupees.
“You're making it tough on the millions of bald-headed Americans,” Clark advised. “They may get inferiority complexes because they see every male film star with a full head of hair, whether it’s his or Max Factor’s.
“The baldies of America are in danger of feeling socially and romantically inferior because of how they are pictured in the movies.
There's no reason why Hollywood can't have at least one romantic star who is bald.”
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Clark himself has had a fine head of skin for many years, but he is no oldtimer. He shields his exact age because he fears producers will think he is too young for the character roles he portrays. (My spies report he is in his thirties.)
The actor is living proof that a shiny-domed male can be successful socially and professionally. He is one of the film town's most popular escorts, his current date being Benay Venuta. He is also one of the busiest actors, with or without a toupee. He has appeared on the screen both ways, but shuns the hairpiece to his personal life.
• • •
“The toupee is just as dishonest for the male as the falsie is for the female," he reasoned. "I think it is much better to look bald than phony. Most women can spot a toupee at 10 paces. The movies may be able to trick audiences with fake hair, but it's too easily detected in person.”
Clark cited science to support his argument. He observed that studies in recent years have shown that baldness is a sign of virility. The fact that baldness occurs infrequently with women adds to that belief,” he said.
Furthermore, he named some famous figures as proof that bald men can be admired and successful—General Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Henry J. Kaiser, Clement Attlee, Aga Kahn, Harold Stassen, etc.
“Hollywood is behind the times in trying to hide baldness." he concluded. “When will the studios wise up? Hair on the head? Bah! It's more important on the chest.”

Fred Clark Speaks Up For Supporting Players
By FRANK LANGLEY
NEW YORK — Fred Clark, best remembered as the temper-torn neighbour of the “Burns and Allen Show” some years ago, once expressed his distaste for award-winning actors who gush gratitude to everyone from producer to prop man. “They rarely,” he said, “if ever remember to give credit to their supporting players, without whom they certainly could not have attained their success.”
There is a good deal of sense to this, since supporting players, some of whom were once great stars and all tried-and-true professionals, supply the canvas, paints, brushes, color, setting and illuminating with which the star creates his masterpiece. If these elements are inferior, there will be no praise, no awards and very little play.
Most of these character actors walk the streets of Hollywood and New York in relative anonymity. If they are recognized, they produce such phrases as “there goes Fred Mertz, Lucy’s landlord” or “isn’t that whatziz name, who plays Ben Casey’s assistant?”

Fred Clark is no stranger to this type of recognition. “Most visitors to the set where we shot would approach me and say, ‘Oh, Mr. Morton, we enjoy your acting so much.’ When somebody addressed me as Mr. Clark, I was reasonably certain he worked there.”
Average American Male
Clark is far from the image most people have of an actor. On stage or off, he appears to be the average American male. He is tall, balding, sometimes attentive, other times aggressive, reacting to the situation.
On stage, he is a delight of producers and directors in his professional ability to make his characterization as natural as if it were in real life.
“It is particularly difficult to be natural in comedy,” Clark admitted, somewhat sadly. Although comedy has become his forte, he still prefers the serious roles.
“Comedy demands exaggeration. Too much makes it slapstick. Not enough makes it dull. You have to find the happy medium between natural and exaggeration so that the part can be both believable and still funny.”
Series Are Hard Work
In his latest role, on Wednesday, August 8, “U.S. Steel Hour,” Clark played a World War Two Colonel who so enjoyed the cooking for his mess officer he refused to consider his request for a transfer to a combat area. This situation required that combination of exaggeration and naturalness that Clark so proficiently blends.
Returning to the subject of top bananas in show business, Clark reminisced about George Burns, whom he considers to be “the very essence of a showman and the epitomy of a good administration in show business.”
“He didn’t demand anything of his actors. He advised them on their performances and that way got just what he was after.”
Asked if he would enjoy returning to a series like Burns and Allen, Clark said there is a possibility of doing one, though not in the immediate future. “However,” he remarked candidly, “I must admit that my preference for doing a TV series is motivated by finances. They are very lucrative. But they are very tough on an actor. They are confining, often boring and always hard work.
“I think I speak for most actors when I say that, if the money were the same, we would all want to be the guest stars and featured players in one-time specials, or somebody else’s series.”