Trivia

Muscular, well-built, hairy-chested American actor. A former model, he appeared in 'tough' western roles under contract to 20th Century Fox and then had a solid run as the second lead of several low-budget, cult science-fiction films in the 1950's. He moved to Italy during the 60's to star in spaghetti westerns and sword and sandal epics.

He graduated from the Pasadena Playhouse School for Performing Arts in Pasadena, California.

When he was a teenager, he went by his middle name of Donovan.

Clark's most prominent role in American film came in 1958, when he was cast as Stewpot in South Pacific (1958), an adaptation of the Broadway musical. His vocals were dubbed by Thurl Ravenscroft. Following the film's premiere, the New York Times described Clark's character as a "raffish gob.".

According to fellow actor Robert Woods, Clark died of a heart attack in Rome, Italy on June 1, 2009, three days before his 82nd birthday, shortly after a taping for a program on the mid 1960s Eurospy genre on the TV series Starcult.

In 1965, Clark originated the role of Secret Agent Dick Mallory in the Agent 077 trilogy modeled on James Bond.

Clark was married to Bette Blatt, whom he met when they were in high school. They had one child and were divorced in 1980.

Clark had the lead in Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) and 12 to the Moon (1960). The former is regarded by some as Clark's "most memorable film.".

He enlisted in the Navy when he was 17, and after being honorably discharged, he sought a career as an actor. When that effort was unsuccessful, he found employment as a model and as a construction worker.

In 1959, he made an unsold private investigator TV pilot for a William Campbell Gault-inspired mystery series entitled Brock Callahan, directed by Don Siegel and written by Stirling Silliphant.

His father Carl was a deputy sheriff. His mother was named Dora. Ken also had two younger sisters: Lois and Jenne Lee.

Clark made many guest star appearances on a variety of American TV shows, including four appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955).

Clark was originally contracted to 20th Century Fox. While working for that studio, he acquired a reputation as a "beefcake" actor similar to Richard Egan.

He also worked as a coal miner in the mid 1950s near Cadiz, Ohio.

In one of his final roles for Fox, he appeared in Elvis Presley's debut motion picture, Love Me Tender (1956). Fox dropped Clark following that picture, and his roles in the following years were often in lower-budget films.