John Clark

Ivan John Clark (born 1 November 1932) is an English actor, director, producer and writer. Clark is probably best known for his role as Just William in theatre and radio in the late 1940s and as the former husband of actress Lynn Redgrave, to whom he was married for 33 years. However, he established himself as a stage actor and director after moving to the United States in 1960, and became noted for directing plays featuring his wife in the 1970s beginning with A Better Place at Dublin's Gate Theatre (1973), then in America The Two of Us (1975), Saint Joan (1977–78), and a tour of California Suite (1976). In 1981, he directed an episode of the CBS television series House Calls, in which Redgrave starred. In 1993–94 Clark produced and directed the one-woman play, Shakespeare for My Father written and performed by Lynn Redgrave, which played on Broadway and then the Haymarket Theatre in London, followed by a tour of Australia and Canada. Early career Clark was born in London. He grew up in the English village of Chipperfield, Hertfordshire and attended Watford Grammar School for Boys. In 1944, a neighbour of Clark, who happened to be a BBC producer, asked him to play schoolboy D'arcy Minor as a one off in BBC Radio's The Will Hay Programme. The initial appearance led to a longer role, and he later went on to the variety version at the Victoria Palace in London's West End during the V-2 scare. Just four days before VE Day, the act was performed at the Life Guards Barracks in Windsor for the last time, at a British variety show for the Royal Family at midnight, 4 May 1945. For reasons of security, there was no prior announcement in the newspapers.