John Clark; Film production designer & architect
Hyfler/Rosner
December 22, 2007
John Clark
Film production designer who after working on a string of
hit films became the architect of award-winning shops
John Clark was the production designer and art director
responsible for such films as Performance, The Railway
Children and Tommy; later in his career he became an
award-winning architect who designed shopping centres and
department stores throughout England and several buildings
in Asia.
William John Wyness Clark, known to kith and kin as Bill,
was born in 1934 to an Aberdeen trawlerman and his wife. He
demonstrated talent and ambition from an early age and,
after studying at Aberdeen Grammar School, was accepted by
the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture at 16 - two
years younger than any other student.
After his six-year course, he left Aberdeen to work with Sir
Basil Spence in London. Just as his architectural career was
beginning to take off, however, he was called up for
National Service and was commissioned in the Royal Air
Force. On his release he won a scholarship to Princeton
University, where he studied under Lou Kahn, obtained an MA
and then spent a year as an associate professor of
architecture.
A visit to the Beverly Hills home of a wealthy Princeton
friend fired his desire to work in Hollywood, and through
another Princeton contact, the Oscar-winning film editor
Bill Reynolds, Clark landed a job designing sets at MGM.
In the late 1960s he decided to put his talents to use in
the booming British film industry and returned to the UK,
where he quickly established himself as a successful
production designer on such films as Performance (1970), The
Railway Children (1970), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) and
Tommy (1974). This was a golden era for the British film
industry, and Clark, whose work brought him into the orbit
of such figures as Ken Russell, Sean Connery, Elizabeth
Taylor and Jack Nicholson, embraced it with relish.
Eventually, however, he was tempted back into architecture,
and with Colin Ketley and Roger Gould he set up an
architectural practice. Ketley, Gould and Clark was soon
employing more than 100 people and designing for such
clients as Debenhams.
In 1981 he set up his own practice, John Clark Associates,
taking Debenhams with him, and over the next decade
developed a reputation for his contributions to British
retail architecture.
Among these were the award-winning West Orchards shopping
centre in Coventry, the Drummond Centre in Croydon and a
series of department stores for the Burton Group and
Allders. He also worked in the Far East, designing one of
the first hotels to be built on Pangkor Island, Malaysia.
In retirement, Clark pursued his passion for fine carpentry
and metalwork, and became a prominent member of the Society
of Ornamental Turners. John Clark Associates continues and
is involved in the construction of a new shopping complex in
White City, West London.
Clark was well liked for his warmth, humour, his zest for
life, his intelligence and generosity - and in particular
for his ability to tell a good joke. He was almost as well
known for his lavish, annual Christmas parties in London as
for his artistic and creative flair.
Clark was married and divorced, and he is survived by his
two sons.
John Clark, film production designer and architect, was born
on September 3, 1934. He died of heart failure on December
12, 2007, aged 73
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