Roy Clark
Roy Clark |
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Roy Linwood Clark (born 15 April 1933, Meherrin, Virginia) is a versatile and well-known country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting one of the first nationally televised country variety shows in the United States, Hee Haw from 1969 - 1992.
Clark has been an iconic figure in country music, both as a musician and as a popularizer of country music. Clark is an entertainer, most of all, with an amiable personality and a telegenic presence.
During the 1970s, Clark frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enjoyed a 30,000,000 viewership for "Hee Haw". Clark is highly regarded as both a guitarist and banjo player. He is also skilled in Classical guitar as well as playing several other instruments. While he has had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g. "Yesterday, When I was Young" and "Thank God and Greyhound"), his instrumental skill has had an enormous effect on succeeding generations of both bluegrass and country musicians.
Career
Born in southside Virginia, Clark grew up as a teenager in southeast Washington, D.C. where his father worked at the Washington Navy Yard. At the age of 14, Clark began playing banjo, guitar, and mandolin, and he won two National Banjo Championships by the age of 17. He was simultaneously pursuing a sporting career, first as a baseball player, and then as a boxer, before switching over to music full time. At the age of 17, he had his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.
By 1955, he was a regular on Jimmy Dean's Washington, D.C. television program. Dean, who valued punctuality among musicians in his band, the Texas Wildcats, fired Clark for habitual lateness, telling him "you're the most talented person I've ever fired." In 1960, Clark went out to Las Vegas where he worked as guitarist in a band led by former West Coast Western Swing bandleader-comedian Hank Penny. When Dean was tapped to host The Tonight Show, he asked Clark to appear, introducing him to a national audience for the first time. Subsequently, Clark appeared on The Beverly Hillbillies as a recurring character (actually two, he played businessman Roy Halsey and Roy's mother, Myrtle). Once, on an episode of the Sunday evening Jackie Gleason Show that was dedicated to country music, Clark played a blistering rendition of "Down Home". Later, he even appeared on an episode of The Odd Couple where he played "Malagueña".
In 1963, Clark signed to Capitol Records and had three top 10 hits. He switched to Dot Records and again had hits. He later recorded for ABC Records, which had acquired Dot, and MCA Records, which absorbed the ABC label.
In 1969, Clark and Buck Owens were the hosts of Hee Haw. The show was dropped by CBS Television in 1971 but continued to run in syndication for twenty more years.
In 1983, Clark opened the Roy Clark Celebrity Theatre in Branson, Missouri, becoming the first famous country music star to have his own venue there, and launching a trend which would eventually cause Branson to become an important center of country performance. Clark frequently played his own Branson nightclub during the '80s and '90s. He has since closed the venue (which briefly became the unlikely professional home of the Platters and is currently owned by Merrill Osmond) and gone back to a fairly light touring schedule that usually includes a performance with Ramona Jones and the Jones Family Band at their annual tribute to Clark's old "Hee Haw" co-star Grandpa Jones in Mountainview, Arkansas.
In addition to his musical skill, Clark has often displayed his talents as a comedian and actor. During his years on the variety show Hee Haw, Clark entertained the audience in numerous comedy sketches, including a recurring feature where he played the clerk of the "Empty Arms Hotel", a character similar to that portrayed by John Cleese in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. Clark released several albums of his comedic performances, to varying critical acclaim and commercial success.
Clark has endorsed Mosrite, Gretsch, and many other brands of guitar during his career. He currently endorses Heritage Guitars, which makes a Roy Clark model.[1]
On 22 August 1987, Clark was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
For many years Clark has made his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Roy Clark Elementary School in Tulsa's Union School District was named in his honor in 1978.
His official website is now: http://www.royclark.org
Film roles
- Country Comes Home (1982)
- Uphill All the Way (1986)
- Freeway (1988)
Television and film as himself
As himself, Clark has appeared in numerous television programs, beginning with Swing Out, Sweet Land (1970) and followed by The Bell Telephone Jubilee, The Captain & Tennille Special (both 1976), "Fair Weather Friends" (1977), Hanna-Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue (1977), The Muppet Show (1978), the EPCOT Center opening celebration (1982), Disneyland's 30th Anniversary Celebration (1985), the 6th Annual National Songwriter Awards (1986), The Grand Ole Opry 65th Anniversary (1991), The Grand Ole Opry 70th Anniversary (1996), and A Bing Crosby Christmas (1998). He also appeared as himself in the film Gordy (1995).
Discography
Albums
- 1962 - The Lightning Fingers Of Roy Clark (Capitol)
- 1963 - Roy Clark Sings The Tip Of My Fingers (Capitol)
- 1964 - Happy To Be Unhappy (Capitol)
- 1965 - Roy Clark Guitar Spectacular (Capitol)
- 1966 - Roy Clark Sings Lonesome Love Ballads (Capitol)
- 1966 - Stringin' Along With The Blues (Capitol)
- 1968 - Urban Suburban (Dot)
- 1968 - Do You Believe This Roy Clark (Dot)
- 1969 - Yesterday, When I Was Young (Dot)
- 1969 - The Everlovin' Soul Of Roy Clark (Dot)
- 1970 - The Other Side Of Roy Clark (Dot)
- 1970 - I Never Picked Cotton (Dot)
- 1970 - The Best Of Roy Clark (Dot)
- 1971 - The Incredible Roy Clark (Dot)
- 1971 - The Magnificent Sanctuary Band (Dot)
- 1972 - Roy Clark Country (Dot)
- 1973 - Superpicker (Dot)
- 1973 - Come Live With Me (Dot)
- 1973 - Roy Clark's Family Album (Dot)
- 1974 - The Entertainer (Dot)
- 1974 - Roy Clark (Dot)
- 1975 - A Pair Of Fives (Banjos That Is) (Dot)
- 1975 - Heart To Heart (Dot)
- 1977 - The ABC Collection (ABC)
- 1977 - Hookin' It (ABC/Dot)
- 1978 - Labor Of Love (ABC)
- 1978 - Banjo Bandits (ABC)
- 1979 - Makin' Music (MCA) with Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Steve Ripley
- 1980 - My Music (MCA)
- 1981 - Makin' Love (MCA)
- 1981 - Meanwhile Back At The Country (MCA)
Awards
- 1970 - CMA - Comedian Of The Year
- 1972 - ACM - Entertainer Of The Year
- 1973 - ACM - Entertainer Of The Year
- 1973 - CMA - Entertainer of the Year
- 1975 - CMA - Instrumental Group Of The Year (with Buck Trent)
- 1976 - CMA - Instrumental Group Of The Year (with Buck Trent)
- 1977 - CMA - Instrumentalist Of The Year
- 1978 - CMA - Instrumentalist Of The Year
- 1980 - CMA - Instrumentalist Of The Year
- 1982 - Grammy - Best Country Instrumental Performance "Roy Clark - Alabama Jubilee"
References
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