Clarke started his career as an assistant cameraman to
Allen Siegler at
Universal Pictures in 1915. After serving overseas with the U.S. Army during
World War I, he returned to work as an assistant cameraman with the National Film Company and Oliver Morosco Company. Subsequently promoted to
cinematographer on the 15-part silent
film serial The Son of Tarzan (1920), he worked across a broad spectrum of film, including standard film serials at the independents, to showcase musicals and major studio epics. From 1927 to 1933, he was first cameraman at the Jesse Lasky Company. He was responsible for all of the China location footage and much of the studio work for
MGM's
The Good Earth (1937) but was uncredited. After working on a number of movies for
Fox Films in the 1930s, he moved to MGM. In 1938, he returned to the now
20th Century-Fox and worked the majority of his subsequent career at the studio. He worked on low-budget
Mr. Moto and
Charlie Chan pictures to help produce propaganda material such as
Guadalcanal Diary (1943) to pictures
Thunderhead, Son of Flicka (1945) and
Miracle on 34th Street (1947) to big
CinemaScope musicals
Marching Along (1952). He was married to Marian Bowden and died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, in 1983. ==Teacher==