Richard M. Stuart Clark, a stalwart American character actor of Armenian descent, was born in Buffalo, New York, to parents Matthew and Afro Mardirosian. With a distinctive gap-toothed smile and often bespectacled, Clark has been a fixture on screen since 1968, specializing in portraying endearing yet awkward, uptight, or geeky characters.
Clark's most notable roles include his appearances in the iconic television series M*A*S*H, where he played Lieutenant Tippy Brooks, a crossword enthusiast and friend of Hawkeye, and Captain Ben Pierce, who shared a surname with Hawkeye and received his mail by mistake. He also had a recurring role as a patient of psychologist Bob Hartley in The Bob Newhart Show and appeared as the beleaguered agent of talk-show host Nan Gallagher in the sitcom The Two of Us.
In addition to his television work, Clark briefly starred in his own domestic sitcom, We've Got Each Other, as a home-bound writer for a mail-order catalogue. Although the show was cancelled after one season, Clark continued to essay diverse characters in episodes of Barney Miller, play an amnesiac psychiatric patient in NBC's St. Elsewhere, and make guest appearances in other TV series until his retirement from acting in 2003.
Before his acting career, Clark appeared on Broadway three times, notably as Louis XVI in Ben Franklin in Paris and as the 'Sultan of Bashir' in Don't Drink the Water, a comic play written by Woody Allen. The show, set inside a U.S. embassy behind the Iron Curtain, was a hit and ran for 598 performances at the Morosco, Ethel Barrymore, and Belasco theatres, eventually being adapted into a motion picture in 1969.
