Jack J. Clark

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Jack Clark was an American director and actor of the early motion picture industry.

Born John J. Clark in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania he became a theatrical actor and was induced to enter motion pictures in 1907 by Sidney Olcott of the New York based Kalem Studios during the silent film era. He traveled through 24 countries with the film company becoming one of the first American film stars to go on foreign location. While in the Holy Land, Kalem Studios produced the first passion play, From the Manger to the Cross, casting Jack Clark as John the Apostle.

In 1912, Jack Clark married actress and co-star Gene Gauntier in Palestine. They divorced in 1918.

During a three-year leave from the film industry in the early 1920s, Jack was instructor of dramatic arts at Villanova University. He organized a dramatic workshop and produced the mystical play Vision. About the same time he staged a pageant Charity with a cast of 600 persons, which established new records at the Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House. He also wrote and produced a dramatic musical pageant Columbus which, with a cast of more than 1000 was staged at the Philadelphia Academy of Music for the Knights of Columbus.