Night Heat

Background:

Former football player Eugene Clark is an American actor who began acting in the early 1980s and has since appeared in over 90 roles. He is known to television audiences for playing the supporting role of Detective Colby Burns in “Night Heat” (1985-1989), where he picked up a Gemini Award for his performance and Sid Gomez in a string of TV films and a TV series adaptation of William Shatner's science fiction novels “TekWar” (1994-1995). In addition, he has had recurring roles in such shows as “Sweating Bullets,” “Street Legal,” “Side Effects,” “Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye” and “The Line” and guest roles in series like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years,” “The City” and “The District.” He has also appeared in countless TV films, including “Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story” (2004), “Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story” (2005) and “Too Late to Say Goodbye” (2009). As a movie actor, Clark is probably most memorable for portraying Big Daddy in “Land of the Dead” (2005). His film credits include

“Martin's Day” (1984), “3 Men and a Baby” (1987), “Gladiator Cop” (1995), “Turn It Up” (2000), “Resurrecting the Champ” (2007), “Dolan's Cadillac” (2009), “Walled In” (2009) and “The Legend of the Mountain Witch” (2010).

Football

Childhood and Family:

Eugene Anthony Clark was born on October 8, 1955 (some sources mention December 13, 1951) in Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played offensive guard for the campus' football team.

Land of the Dead

Career:

An offensive lineman at UCLA, Eugene Clark was chosen by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the ninth round of the NFL Draft in 1975. Instead of performing in the National Football League events, he played 20 games with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League during 1977 and 1978.

Clark, who first appeared on television in a 1973 episode of the ABC series “Kung Fu,” left football to become an actor. In 1981, he made his film acting debut in the independent comedy “Improper Channels,” starring Alan Arkin and Mariette Hartley. He has since appeared in many film and television projects.

In 1984, Clark played River Ross Darrow in his first TV film, “House of Dies Drear,” a PBS drama adapted from the 1968 children's novel of the same name by Virginia Hamilton. After appearing in the Alan Gibson directed drama “Martin's Day” (1984, starred Richard Harris) and the Canadian TV film “Shellgame” (1985), he won his first series regular role on the Canadian crime drama “Night Heat,” which ran on CTV from January 31, 1985, to January 5, 1989. Playing Detective Colby Burns, he was handed a 1987 Gemini for Best Performance by a Supporting Actor for his acting on the show. Costars of the series included Scott Hylands, Jeff Wincott, Allan Royal, Sean McCann, Susan Hogan and Stephen Mendel.

During the show's four year run, Clark managed to find other acting jobs. In 1986, he supported Diana Reis in the thriller “Thrillkill,” worked with Olivia d'Abo, Keanu Reeves and Jessica Steen in the movie “Flying” (directed by Paul Lynch) and appeared in the NBC films “Doing Life” (starred Tony Danza as Jerry Rosenberg) and “Unnatural Causes” (starred John Ritter and Alfre Woodard). He also made guest appearances in the series “Seeing Things,” “Philip Marlowe, Private Eye” and “Hot Shots,” in which he recreated his role of Colby Burns for the episodes “Accidental Victims” and “Riot.” 1987 to 1988 saw roles in the films “Echoes in the Darkness” (TV; starred Peter Coyote, Stockard Channing, Robert Loggia and Peter Boyle), “3 Men and a Baby” (starred Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg and Ted Danson) and “The Good Mother” (starred Diane Keaton and Liam Neeson) and in episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (as Andy Wilson) and “War of the Worlds” (as Gordon Reynolds). After “Night Heat” left the air, Clark appeared as Captain Henry Kincaid in an episode of “The Twilight Zone” called “The Wall,” worked with Kris Kristofferson and Cheryl Ladd in the science fiction film “Millennium,” which was helmed by Michael Anderson, and portrayed Hugh McVeigh in the Canadian thriller “Mindfield,” which starred Michael Ironside, Lisa Langlois and Christopher Plummer (all 1989).

The actor became even busier in the 1970s. He played John Elman in episodes of the popular Canadian prime time soap “E.N.G” (1990-1991), Ollie Porter in four episodes of the series “Sweating Bullets” (1991), Delroy Payne in two episodes of the CBS courtroom series “Street Legal” (1991) and Ray Whelan in seven episodes of “Side Effects” (1995-1996). He also played Sid Gomez in the TV movie adaptations “TekWar: The Movie,” “TekWar: TekLords,” “TekWar: TekLab” and “TekWar: TekJustice (all 1994) and in the subsequent TV series version “TekWar” (CTV, 1994-1995), which premiered on the USA Network on January 7, 1995. Clark was also seen in a number of TV films, including “The Kissing Place” (1990), “Johnny Ryan” (1990), “ Knight Rider 2000” (1991), “Plymouth” (1991), “Split Images” (1992), “From the Files of Joseph Wambaugh: A Jury of One “(1992), “Gross Misconduct” (1993), “Fatal Vows: The Alexandra O'Hara Story” (1994), “Falling for You” (1995), “Windsor Protocol” (1996), “Trial & Error” (1997), “Face Down” (1997), “Dead Husbands” (1998), “Free of Eden” (1999) and “In the Company of Spies” (1999). He appeared as a guest star in the shows “Counterstrike” (1991), “Secret Service” (1992), “Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years” (1996), “Due South” (1997), “The City” (1999) and “Earth: Final Conflict” (1999) and was cast as Agent McKiff in the 1998 CBS miniseries sequel “The Last Don II.” Meanwhile, on the big screen, Clark had roles in the Lorenzo Lamas vehicles “The Swordsman” (1992) and “Gladiator Cop” (1995), as well as in directors Maya Angelou's “Down in the Delta” (1998) and Clément Virgo's “One Heart Broken Into Song” (1999, as Hud Jarvis).

Entering the new millennium, Clark portrayed Carver in the TV miniseries “RoboCop: Prime Directives,” based on the 1987 science fiction film “RoboCop,” Mayor John Lafitte in the TV film “On Hostile Ground,” Dave in Showtime's thriller “Who Killed Atlanta's Children” (starred James Belushi and Gregory Hines), Detective Carmine De Luca in the Marc S. Grenier directed thriller “Cause of Death” and Del in the dramatic film “The Magic of Marciano” (starred Cody Morgan, Nastassja Kinski and Robert Forster). He also appeared as Marshall in director Robert Adetuyi's “Turn It Up” and Attorney Marlowe King in Rodney Gibbons' action film “Wilder” (2000). After appearing in the TV films “Loves Music, Loves to Dance” (2001) and “Redeemer” (2002, starred Matthew Modine) and in an episode of “Doc” (2002), he landed a recurring role on the Canadian-American drama “Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye,” playing Ted Garrett. He appeared in 16 episodes during 2002 to 2004. Meanwhile, in 2003, he also worked in the TV films “Sounder” and “Jasper, Texas” and guest starred in “The District.”

In 2004, Clark supported William H. Macy, Tom Selleck, Monica Potter and Felicity Huffman in the CBS film “Reversible Errors,” based on the novel of the same name by Scott Turow, played Bobby in the VH1 biopic “Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story,” and guest starred in ABC's “Threat Matrix” episode “19 Seconds.” The following year, he portrayed Big Daddy, the head zombie, in the horror feature “Land of the Dead,” which was written and directed by George A. Romero. Costars of the movie included Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento and Robert Joy. The same year, he acted in the TV films “Murder at the Presidio” and “Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story” (starred Jami Gertz) and appeared in episodes of “Tilt” and “This Is Wonderland.”

Clark played Officer Connors in the Gemini award winning TV film “Doomstown” (2006), which was written and directed by David Sutherland, Cadillac in the Canadian feature “Trailer Park Boys: The Movie” (2006), which was co-written and directed by Mike Clattenburg, Sergeant Gillett in the Lifetime TV movie “Still Small Voices” (2007), starring Catherine Bell and Mark Humphrey, and a veteran in the TV film “Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming” (2007), which starred Rob Lowe and was written and directed by Ernie Barbarash. Still in 2007, he appeared with Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett, Alan Alda, Teri Hatcher, David Paymer and Peter Coyote in the drama “Resurrecting the Champ” and in “Talk to Me,” a biography of radio personality Ralph “Petey” Greene (played by Don Cheadle).

Clark resurfaced in 2009 in the movie “Dolan's Cadillac,” which starred Christian Slater and was directed by Jeff Beesley. The film was shown at the Oldenburg International Film Festival on September 17, 2009. He then played the supporting role of Burnett in the horror movie “Walled In” (2009), which starred Mischa Barton and Cameron Bright. On the small screen, Clark played Currie in four episodes of the Canadian drama series “The Line,” Moss in the TV film “Deadliest Sea,” opposite Sebastian Pigott and Kristen Holden-Ried, and appeared in the Lifetime TV drama “Too Late to Say Goodbye” (all 2009).

Recently playing the recurring role of Coach Heinrich in “Wingin' It” (2 episodes, 2010), Clark will star as Sheriff Mason Handy in the horror film “The Legend of the Mountain Witch” (2010) for director Alex Ryan.

Awards:

• Gemini: Best Performance by a Supporting Actor, “Night Heat,” 1987