Stand-up comedian and actor Anthony Clark died on Tuesday at age 62, according to Deadline reported.
His friend and former Yes, Dear co-star Mike O’Malley announced the death on Instagram. O’Malley said they spoke on the phone three weeks before his passing.
“We spoke on the phone three weeks ago. He had us laughing loudly as he always did,” O’Malley wrote on Instagram, according to Yahoo News Canada. “He invested his money well and essentially retired after we wrapped. Rest in peace, Tony.”
Clark built a television career leading network comedies during the 1990s and 2000s. He starred as Boyd Pritchett on the NBC sitcom Boston Common from 1996 to 1997, which ran for two seasons across 32 episodes.
Anthony Clark, Comedian and ‘Yes, Dear’ Actor, Dies at 62 https://t.co/PotYfp6BNY via @thr
He later landed his most prominent role as Greg Warner on the CBS sitcom Yes, Dear. The series ran for six seasons and 122 episodes from 2000 to 2006, co-starring O’Malley, Jean Louisa Kelly, and Liza Snyder.
His television credits also include ABC’s Soul Man, a recurring role on Ellen, and hosting Season 4 of Last Comic Standing in 2006.
Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on April 4, 1964, Clark graduated from Emerson College in 1986 with a mass communication degree. He won the Top College Comedian Award from the American Collegiate Talent Showcase during his college years.
“I love stand-up because the reaction is immediate,” Clark told The Comic’s Comic in a 2006 interview. “There’s no director. There’s no writer. No producer. There’s just you. You just get out there and vent.”
O’Malley recalled watching him perform before they worked together on television. “When my wife Lisa and I were dating back in the mid-nineties, Anthony was already famous in Boston, regularly selling out comedy shows,” O’Malley said.
Greg Garcia, creator of Yes, Dear, shared memories of working with Clark following news of his death. Garcia noted they had reconnected over the past few years with monthly phone calls.
“I’ve been very lucky to be friends with some of the funniest people in the world, and Anthony Clark had the most insane sense of humor of all of them,” Garcia told Deadline.
Barry Katz, Clark’s longtime manager, also remembered his client’s impact on the entertainment industry. Katz said that Clark was “one of the funniest and most talented comedian/actors I have ever had the pleasure of watching,” according to Deadline.
Clark died from complications related to pneumonia, according to Deadline.
Clark starred as Greg Warner on CBS’s Yes, Dear, Boyd Pritchett on NBC’s Boston Common, and Rev. Todd Tucker on ABC’s Soul Man.
Clark won the Top College Comedian Award from the American Collegiate Talent Showcase while attending Emerson College, where he graduated in 1986.
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