Frank Clarke

Known as one of the film industry's most daring stunt pilots, Frank Clarke, part Irish and Cherokee, grew up on a ranch near Fresno, CA. But instead of becoming a rodeo cowboy, Clarke caught the aviation fever and became a student of the "grand old man" of movie stunt pilots, Al Wilson. Like Wilson, the handsome Clarke briefly became a star in his own right headlining the 1928 serial The Eagle of the Night. But although a distinct presence onscreen (one columnist declared Clarke "satanically good-looking"), the neophyte thespian proved rather wooden, and although he would play several minor roles in the future, he ultimately made his mark as a stuntman, technical advisor, and even second unit cameraman on a host of films with flying scenes ranging from the Laurel and Hardy comedy Flying Deuces (1939) to such WWII melodramas as Dive Bomber (1941), often in partnership with another veteran pilot, Frank Tomick. Like so many of his generation of barnstorming pilots, Clarke perished in a crash, in his case in a surplus BT-15 above Lake Isabella, CA, in June of 1948. Longtime friend, actor Richard Arlen, delivered the eulogy at Clarke's funeral.

~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide