Caitlin Clarke (May 3, 1952 - September 9, 2004) was an American theater and film actress best known for her role as "Valerian" in the 1981 fantasy film Dragonslayer and for her role as Charlotte Cardoza in the 1998-1999 Broadway musical Titanic.

Biography

Clarke was born Katherine Anne Clarke in Pittsburgh, the oldest of five sisters, the youngest of whom is Torie Clarke. Her family moved to Sewickley when she was ten.

Clarke received her B.A. in theater arts from Mount Holyoke College in 1974 and her M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama in 1978. During her final year at Yale Clarke performed with the Yale Repertory Theater in such plays as Tales from the Vienna Woods.

The first few years of Clarke's professional career were largely theatrical, apart from her role in Dragonslayer. After appearing in three Broadway plays in 1985, Clarke moved to Los Angeles for several years as a film and television actress. She returned to theater in the early 1990s, and to Broadway as Charlotte Cardoza in Titanic.

Clarke was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2000. She returned to Pittsburgh to teach theater at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Pittsburgh Musical Theater's Rauh Conservatory until her death in 2004.

Stage

Broadway

• Titanic: A New Musical (1998)
• The Marriage of Figaro (1985)
• Arms and the Man (1985)
• Strange Interlude (1985)
• Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap (1983)

Off-Broadway

• Three Birds Alighting On A Field (1994)
• Unexpected Tenderness (1994)
• Quartermaine's Terms (1984)
• Thin Ice (1984)
• Total Eclipse (1984)
• Summer (1983)
• No End of Blame (1981)
• Othello (1979)

Regional

• The Gigli Concert (Pittsburgh, 2002)
• Aristocrats (Pittsburgh, 2002)
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Rochester, NY, 2000)
• Griller (Baltimore, 1999)
• Indiscretions (Dallas, 1997)
• The Glass Menagerie (Portland, Maine, 1997)
• Mrs. Warren's Profession (New Haven, 1996)
• The Queen And The Rebels (Baltimore, 1991)
• Our Country's Good (Los Angeles, 1989)
• Not Quite Jerusalem (New Haven, [984)
• As You Like It (San Diego, 1984)
• Summer Vacation Madness (Minneapolis, 1982)
• Plenty (Chicago, 1981)
• Bal (Chicago, 1980)
• The Winter's Tale (Washington, 1979)
• Tales from the Vienna Woods (New Haven, 1978)

Film

• Never Again (2002)
• Joe the King (1999)
• Cost of Living (1997)
• A Cure For Serpents (1997)
• Blown Away (1994)
• The Big Picture (1989)
• Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989)
• Crocodile Dundee (1986)
• Kenny (aka The Kid Brother) (1985)
• Dragonslayer (1981)

Television

Series: Northern Exposure, The Equalizer, Once A Hero, Moonlighting, Sex And The City, Law & Order ("Menace", "Juvenile", "Stiff").

Movies: Mayflower Madam (1986), Love, Lies and Murder (1991), The Stepford Husbands (1996).

External links

• The Caitlin Clarke Page
• Obituary (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Obituary page