Sanford Clark
Biography
Country-western singer Sanford Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, when he was nine years old. He began performing in the Phoenix area in the early 1950s. He enlisted in the Air Force and during his hitch he formed a band, which played in the South Pacific and Hawaii. After his discharge, he returned to Phoenix to pursue a singing career full-time. He met singer/songwriter/producer Lee Hazlewood, then a DJ on a Phoenix radio station. Hazelwood wrote a song for Clark, "The Fool", which Clark recorded in 1956 and which was released on MCI Records. The song began to gain in popularity, and when a Philadelphia DJ mentioned it to executives at Dot Records and they played it, the label picked up the song to distribute nationally. It didn't take long for it to become a hit, reaching #14 on the Country Singles chart, #5 on the Black Singles chart and #7 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. Clark went on tour to give the song more exposure, and opened for such major acts as Ray Price and Roy Orbison. His follow-up record, 1957's "The Cheat", was also a hit, though on a smaller scale than "The Fool". Clark left Dot Records after a fight with the owner and signed with the smaller Jamie Records in 1958. For that label he recorded "Son of a Gun", which was also a hit (and which The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards credits as the first song he ever performed with the Stones). Clark eventually left the music business and worked in construction, although he did start his own record label, Desert Sun Records, and recorded some songs on it.
Known For & Full Filmography7 Titles
Drama Series - 1983, 16 episodes • as Orderly
A fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel work as soldiers of fortune while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit."
Drama Series - 1984, 16 episodes • as 1st Man
An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.
Movie - 1984, 2h 15m • as CHUD
A rash of bizarre murders in New York City seems to point to a group of grotesquely deformed vagrants living in the sewers. A courageous policeman, a photojournalist and his girlfriend, and a nutty bum, who seems to know a lot about the creatures, band together to try and determine what the creatures are and how to stop them.
Movie - 1992, 2h 15m • as Johnny
Softcore anthology film containing stories: "Natalie Would"; "Modivation"; "Put Asunder"; "Save The Wetlands"; "The Thief"; "Jilted Lover"; "Three On A Match"; "What Anna Wants..."; "Video Mate"; and "My Cyberian Rhapsody".
Movie - 1986, 2h 15m • as Wheelchair Man
M. Harry Smilac is a down-on-his-luck music manager who is having a hard time attracting talent and booking gigs for his band, Kicks (The most recent of the gigs is a Dairy Queen opening!!). When making arrangements for a campaign fund-raiser, he mistakes Rick Roberts, a professional wrestler, for a musician and hires him. At that moment he becomes a wrestling manager and starts to book matches for him and his teammate Tonga Tom. The team is a success, and Harry decides to take his wrestlers and his band on a "Rock n' Wrestling" tour. The tour is a success, and Harry feels what it is like to be a winner again.
Drama Series - 1987, 16 episodes • as Punk
Savvy Assistant District Attorney Catherine Chandler is saved by a noble, beast-like man named Vincent, who lives in a secret, utopian community beneath New York City. They share a psychic bond, and he protects her from above.
Movie - 1995, 2h 15m • as Avvocato americano (uncredited)
1979. Lawyer Giorgio Ambrosoli is appointed liquidator of Banca Privata Italiana, the empire of mighty financier Michele Sindona. Teaming up with unassuming cop Silvio Novembre, Ambrosoli uncovers the real scope of Sindona's malpractice, exposing him as the middleman in a global network linking the Sicilian Mafia, Italy's ruling Christian Democrats, and CIA-backed covert operations across Western Europe. Isolated by his own government and pressured by mob hitmen, Ambrosoli refuses to back down, insisting he is simply 'doing his duty'.