Frank Clarke
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Frank Clarke (29 December 1898 – 12 June 1948) was a Hollywood stunt pilot, actor, and military officer. His most prominent role was as Lieutenant von Bruen (and double for von Richthofen in combat scenes) in the 1930 production Hell's Angels, but he flew for the camera and performed stunts in more than a dozen films in the 1930s and 1940s. Clarke was killed in an aircraft crash near Isabella, California, in 1948.
Born: December 29, 1898
Place of Birth: Paso Robles, California, USA
Known For
Hell's Angels
When the Great War breaks out, brothers Roy and Monte Rutledge, each attending Oxford University, enlist with the Royal Flying Corps.
The Flying Deuces
Ollie falls in love with a woman. When he discovers she's already married, he unsuccessfully attempts suicide but he and Stan then decide to join the Foreign Legion to get away from their troubles. When they’re arrested for soon trying to desert the Legion—they escape a firing squad by stealing an aircraft.
The Lost Squadron
When World War I comes to an end, three pilots find themselves on hard times. They wind up in Hollywood, where they work as stunt fliers for a sadistic director.
Tailspin Tommy in The Great Air Mystery
A 12-episode serial in which Tailspin Tommy evades volcanoes, anti-aircraft shells, and time bombs as he foils a plan by corrupt profiteers to steal an island's oil reserves.
Sundown
Englishmen fighting Nazis in Africa discover an exotic mystery woman living among the natives and enlist her aid in overcoming the Germans.
Ace of Aces
A sculptor who doesn't want to have any part of World War I is shamed by his girlfriend into joining the army. He becomes a fighter pilot, and undergoes a complete personality change.
The Cloud Rider
Bruce Torrence is an aviator and member of the secret service. His rival for the hand of Zella Wingate is Juan Lascelles, a drug smuggler. To get rid of Torrence, Lascelles loosens a wheel on one of his planes, but Zella is the one who goes up in it. Torrence goes up in another plane and attaches a fresh wheel to Zella's plane. In spite of his efforts he later finds her in Lascelles' arms.
Men with Wings
Reporter Nicholas Ranson is jubilant when, on 17 Dec 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright take their first airplane flight. Back home in Underwood, Maryland, however, his uncle Hiram F. Jenkins, owner and editor of the local newspaper, refuses to print the story. Nicholas quits and continues to work on his own airplane, with the devoted help of his little daughter Peggy. Peggy is actually the first in her family to fly when her friends, Patrick Falconer and Scott Barnes, induce her to get inside a large kite they have made, and run with it in a field until she is airborne. The kite is caught in a tree, however, and Peggy gets a black eye. Later, Nicholas dies when his experimental airplane crashes, leaving his wife and children alone. By Peggy's adulthood, planes are capable of flying at an altitude of 11,000 feet, and speeds of nearly 100 m.p.h. Peggy continues her father's obsession with flight by helping Scott and Pat to build a plane.
Eagle of the Night
1928 was the last year when silent films dominated the market, and this aviation-based action serial from Pathe was one of the studio's last. Some pieces are no longer extant (half of chapters 3&6, all of 7, 8, and 9, and the beginning of the 10th and final chapter), but the beginning and end are there as well as enough to follow the action adequately. The surviving Grapevine print is beautifully restored and tinted in spots, although you can tell the print is deteriorated in some of the surviving sections. Basically, an inventor (Josef Swickard, in a role not unlike the one he later played in THE LOST CITY) has created a silencer/muffler for planes to silence any engine sounds, and the bad guys are out to steal the invention and put it to evil use.
Walk Softly, Stranger
A petty crook moves to an Ohio town and courts a factory owner's disabled daughter.
Filmography
as Plane Pilot (uncredited)
as Self (archive footage)
as Pilot (uncredited)
as Pilot
as Burke
as German Cadet
as Flier (uncredited)
as Lt. von Bruen
as Lt. Blount - Aviator
as Pilot
as Michael Donovan