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Bobby Clark (comedy actor)

American actor (1888-1960)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ4934863 ↗
Source-derived summary

Robert Edwin Clark (June 16, 1888 – February 12, 1960), known as Bobby Clark, was an American minstrel, vaudevillian, performer on stage, film, television and the circus. Known for his painted-on eyeglasses, he was part of a comedy team with Paul McCullough for 36 years.

Early years

He was born in Springfield, Ohio. While still in grammar school he formed a friendship with classmate Paul McCullough. The two attended tumbling classes, and began performing an acrobatic act in minstrel shows and later in the Ringling Brothers' Circus. The team worked as clowns from 1906 to 1912. In 1912, they made their debut in vaudeville with a pantomime act built around the simple act of placing a chair on top of a table. In 1922, they starred in Irving Berlin's Broadway show Music Box Revue.

Film career

Beginning in 1929, they made a series of about 35 short comedy films, for FOX and RKO, some of which are still extant.

Clark and McCullough performed together until McCullough's suicide in March 1936.

Editorial summary

“Bobby Clark (comedy actor)” enters the record as american actor (1888-1960). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bobby, Clark and comedy can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1888, 1960, 1906, 1912—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1888-06-16. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Bobby, Clark and comedy.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Bobby Clark (comedy actor)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bobby, Clark and comedy provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4934863. VIAF identifies the subject as 1446021. The Library of Congress control number is n85151708. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1888, 1960, 1906 and 1912.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bobby Clark (comedy actor)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bobby Clark (comedy actor) primary sources, Bobby Clark (comedy actor) archive and Bobby research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bobby Clark (comedy actor)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Bobby Clark (comedy actor)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.