Anthony Clark, stand-up comic who starred in CBS' 'Yes, Dear,' dies at 62

Anthony Clark, the stand-up comedian who played Greg Warner for six seasons on the CBS sitcom "Yes, Dear," died Tuesday. He was 62.

Mike O'Malley, his former co-star, announced the death Wednesday in a post on social media. Deadline reported that Clark died of complications related to pneumonia. No official cause had been released when the news became public.

O'Malley's tribute went back to the mid-1990s, when he and his future wife, Lisa, were dating. Clark was already a star in Boston then, regularly selling out comedy shows, and the couple laughed through a set of his at The Comedy Connection. O'Malley called him "a hilarious guy" and described a comic who laughed along with the audience at his own absurd stories, which only made the room laugh harder. "I was a fan before I was a friend," O'Malley wrote. He said the two had talked by phone three weeks earlier, and he posted photos from the set of the show's final episode.

That Boston detail is the key to Clark's career. Before network television found him, he was a comic first, and his best TV work grew out of his stand-up persona rather than replacing it.

Born April 4, 1964, in Lynchburg, Virginia, Clark studied mass communication at Emerson College in Boston and graduated in 1986. While still in school, he won the Top College Comedian Award from the American Collegiate Talent Showcase. In 1995 he appeared in HBO's "Young Comedians" special, sharing the bill with Garry Shandling, Dave Chappelle, Dave Attell and Louis C.K.

Clark made clear where his loyalty lay. "I love stand-up because the reaction is immediate," he told The Comic's Comic in 2006. In the same interview he said that on stage there is no director, writer or producer, just the comedian.

His first screen appearance came in a 1991 episode of "American Playhouse." Film parts followed in "Dogfight" and Peter Bogdanovich's "The Thing Called Love," whose young cast included River Phoenix, Samantha Mathis, Dermot Mulroney and Sandra Bullock. Clark also made a vivid impression in a small role in Michael Bay's "The Rock" as a flamboyant hairdresser who cuts Sean Connery's hair.

His first lead came in 1996 on NBC's "Boston Common," playing Boyd, a Virginian who moves to Boston to keep an eye on his sister at college and ends up causing trouble at the student union. The premise closely followed Clark's own route from Lynchburg to Emerson, and it fit a comic whose act already belonged to Boston. The series lasted two seasons, ending in 1997. It was the kind of sitcom that seemed to need more patience than NBC gave it.

"Yes, Dear," created by Greg Garcia and Alan Kirschenbaum, premiered on CBS in 2000. Clark and Jean Louisa Kelly played Greg and Kim, married parents. Liza Snyder played Kim's sister, Christine, and O'Malley played Christine's husband, Jimmy, whose family moves into Greg and Kim's guest house. Billy Gardell was also in the cast. The comedy drew its laughs from the two couples' sharply different ideas about raising children.

Critics never warmed to the show. In 2005, Variety called it a "little-comedy-that-could" after it narrowly escaped cancellation the year before. Yet it ran 122 episodes before ending in 2006, well past the 100-episode mark that has long mattered for reruns. A domestic multi-camera comedy that keeps getting renewed without critical support is doing something a network values: holding its time slot week after week. Clark's loose, slightly unhinged energy as Greg gave a familiar setup a bit of unpredictability.

Garcia went on to create "My Name Is Earl." He told Deadline that among the many funny people he has known, "Anthony Clark had the most insane sense of humor of all of them." The two had reconnected over the past two or three years and spoke by phone monthly, Garcia said. Clark was delighted to learn that Garcia was trying stand-up for the first time and offered advice about the craft and life on the road. Just a few weeks ago, Garcia said, they were trading jokes and stories on the phone.

In 2006, Clark hosted the fourth season of NBC's stand-up competition "Last Comic Standing." Bill Bellamy replaced him for Season 5. Clark also led "Soul Man," another short-lived series, and his television credits included "Ellen" and "Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist." His other credits included "Say Uncle," "My Uncle Rafael" and "West of Liberty."

Barry Katz, his longtime manager, called him "one of the funniest and most talented comedian/actors I have ever had the pleasure of watching." Katz said Clark had been buying and selling real estate after stepping back from Hollywood.

O'Malley put it more bluntly. "He invested his money well and essentially retired after we wrapped," he wrote. Clark didn't chase a second hit sitcom or fade through years of guest spots. After 122 episodes, he simply left, which is a rarer ending in show business than it should be. It also fits what he told The Comic's Comic in 2006: "I don't want to have a real job. I just want to hang out."