A guy who preferred work to fame left us
The news came through TMZ, like so many others, but this one hurts a little more if you grew up watching movies where the good guys wore hats. Matt Clark, that face that you have surely seen in a western or in the third part of Back to the Future, died. He was 89 years old.
He died Sunday morning at his home in Austin, Texas. According to his family, it was due to complications after back surgery. No media dramas, no scandals. A quiet exit, as his life seems to have been.
“His relatives describe him as a genuine actor, passionate about his craft, but little interested in fame.”
There is the key. In an era obsessed with followers and likes, Clark was from a different school. That of a job well done. That of the trade.
A resume that is a journey through time
If you search his name on IMDb, you are going to take a trip through 20th century pop culture. He was the waiter in ‘Back to the Future III’. He gave life to a character in the comedy ‘Grace Under Fire’.
But his natural terrain was dust and horses. He acted in lots of westerns, sharing the shot with giants like Clint Eastwood and John Wayne himself. He also snuck into the eighties cult classic ‘The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai’.
On television, he was a regular face in series that defined eras: from ‘Bonanza’ and ‘Kung Fu’ to the excessive glamor of ‘Dynasty’.
“I especially valued collaborating with upright people who were close to their families.”
That says it all. He didn’t care so much about the big name on the poster, but rather about the human quality of the person next to him. An almost radical concept today.
His family claims that he considered himself lucky for his career and that he lived and died on his own terms. There is no better epitaph for an artist.
A little piece of that Hollywood is gone where the important thing was the scene, not the spotlight. Rest in peace, Matt.
