Charles G. Clarke

Ace cinematographer Charles G. Clarke was born on March 19, 1899, in Potter Valley, CA. He got into the film business in 1915 as an assistant cameraman at Universal Pictures. He served in the army overseas during World War One, and when he returned home got a job with the National Film Co. as an assistant cameraman. He was promoted to cinematographer on the serial The Son of Tarzan (1920). He worked steadily on virtually every type of film, from serials at the independents to big splashy musicals and epics at the major studios (he shot all of the China location footage and much of the studio work for MGM's The Good Earth (1937), although he didn't get screen credit for it). He did much work for Fox Films in the 1930s, then went over to MGM for a few years. In 1938 he went back to Fox--now 20th Century-Fox--and, with few exceptions, stayed there for the rest of his career, working on everything from the studio's low-budget Mr. Moto and Charley Chan series pictures to action films (Guadalcanal Diary (1943)) to folksy outdoor pictures (Thunderhead: Son of Flicka (1945) and Smoky (1946)) to big CinemaScope musicals (Stars and Stripes Forever (1952)). He died at his home in Beverly Hills, CA, in 1983.