Clara Clayton
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| Back to the Future character | |
 Clara Clayton/Brown |
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| Clara Clayton/Brown | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 1855 |
| Age (1885) | 30 |
| Age (1895) | 40 |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Played by | Mary Steenburgen |
| Voiced by | Mary Steenburgen |
Clara Clayton is a fictional character, one of the lead characters in the Back to the Future motion picture trilogy, played in Back to the Future Part III and voiced in the animated series by Mary Steenburgen.
Clara was born in 1855 in New Jersey (her year of birth was revealed in the animated series), the daughter of Daniel and Martha Clayton. Her uncle, Ulysses S Clayton, was a general in the American Civil War. She is a schoolteacher, living and working in the schoolhouse outside Hill Valley. Clara is a very independent woman and will not take much fuss from anyone, especially Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. Clara does not like being lied to and believes that people should tell the truth. She often saves the day after coming up with ideas, she does however try and take actions that will help her or other people avoid dangerous situations in the first place.
Clara is a very intelligent woman. Her favorite author is Jules Verne, and she is very interested in astronomy and science. One of her favourite possessions is her telescope, which she often uses to look at the stars and she appears to know where a lot of the constellations are. Clara is a thinker and most of the time will think things through. If she believes something to be too "wacky" or too fantastic to be believed, she will not believe it (such as when Doc tried telling her about the time machine).
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[edit] Pre-Back to the Future Part III
When Clara was 11 she caught diphtheria and was quarantined for three months, so her father bought her a telescope and put it next to her bed so she could see everything out the window. This ignited a love of science and astronomy that would stay with her for the rest of her life.
Little is known about her life between 1861 and 1885, except she became a schoolteacher and has been doing the job for some years before 1885. When she heard that the position of the new schoolteacher in Hill Valley was available, she decided to leave New Jersey behind and head out West to start a new life in California (she may have been influenced by her parents, who met on the Oregon Trail according to the animated series, although this detail is not taken as canon by many fans).
A draft script (set in 1888 rather than 1885) said that Clara was a widow from Silver City, but this is not applicable to the finished film.
[edit] Back to the Future Part III
On September 4, 1885, Clara moved out to Hill Valley, California, taking up a job as a schoolteacher. But as no-one had come to pick her up, she rented a horse and cart. However the horses were spooked by a snake and she fell into Shonash Ravine, which was renamed Clayton Ravine in her memory.
These events were altered when Dr Emmett "Doc" Brown arrived in 1885 in his DeLorean time machine. Doc volunteered to pick up Clara from the train station, where they met and fell in love at first sight. Sadly, within a week Doc was shot in the back by Buford Tannen, and died 2 days later. Clara helped pay for Doc's tombstone, engraving it with "Beloved Clara". Marty McFly finds this tombstone in 1955 with the 1955 Doc (aged 35) and heads back to 1885 to save the 1985 Doc (aged 65) from being murdered.
As such, Doc does not go to pick up Clara at the station - if he never meets her, he cannot fall in love with her - and as before, Clara hires a horse. It is spooked by the snake, but luckily for Clara, Doc and Marty are around to save her life. Once again Clara and Doc fall in love at first sight, which caused problems for Marty who was anxious to get back home to 1985. Doc and Clara attended the Hill Valley festival on September 5, 1885 and spent the night watching the stars through her telescope. They discovered a common love for the novelist Jules Verne. Doc soon realised that he had to say goodbye to Clara and go back to the future. He tried telling her where he was going but she did not believe him and slapped him.
However, next morning, September 6, Clara discovered that Doc was telling the truth after seeing the demonstraion model on how the time machine was going to get back to the future. She ran to catch up with Doc and Marty, who had "borrowed" a train to push the DeLorean up to 88mph. Clara tried to get Doc's attention, but due to the loud noise of the train he couldn't hear her. She managed to get into the cab and blew the train whistle, thus alerting Doc and Marty to her presence. Doc went back to get her so as to take her with them to 1985, but they could not get to the DeLorean in time and Marty was forced to go back to 1985 without them.
The DeLorean had been destroyed by a train once back in 1985 (Marty having gotten out in the nick of time) so he could not come back to 1885 to pick up Doc and Clara. As such Doc started work on a new time machine built into a steam train, as neither he nor Clara (who should have been dead) belonged in 1885. The two married on December 15, 1885 in a small ceremony. Since everyone believed that "Clint Eastwood" (Marty's chosen alias in 1885) perished in the ravine, in 1985, the ravine is called Eastwood Ravine, instead of Clayton Ravine (since Clara never perished).
Over the next 10 years, Doc and Clara worked on the train as their family grew. Clara gave birth to the couple's first son, Jules in 1886, followed by younger brother Verne in 1888. Eventually the time machine was finished and the Brown family left the 1890's to visit Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker in 1985 before departing for times unknown.
[edit] Back to the Future: The Animated Series
The animated series is not taken as canon by many Back to the Future fans, but it does reveal that Clara, along with the rest of the family, moved to the 20th century. The Browns live in a farmhouse outside of Hill Valley by 1991 and Clara has settled into 20th Century life very well, and became a teacher at Hill Valley Elementary. She occasionally joins her husband, sons or Marty on their time travel adventures, including escaping from Lord Biffingham in medieval England and helping Marty's great granddaughter fix a spaceship in 2091.
[edit] Memorable quotes
- "I believe you've underestimated me, mister." - to Buford Tannen, who suggests she can "do something for him worth eighty dollars".
- "Golly" - upon falling on her butt on top of the moving train.
- "Not bad - for a mom!" - upon playing Verne's video games in the animated series episode "Bravelord and the Demon Monstrux".
| Back to the Future Characters | ||
| The McFly Family Marty McFly | George McFly | Lorraine Baines McFly | Jennifer Parker | Seamus & Maggie McFly | Dave McFly | Linda McFly | Marty McFly, Jr | Marlene McFly |
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| The Brown Family Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown | Clara Clayton Brown | Jules Brown | Verne Brown | Einstein |
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| The Tannen Family Biff Tannen | Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen | Griff Tannen |
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| Other Characters Mr. Strickland | Marshall Strickland | Match, Skinhead & 3-D | Goldie Wilson | Douglas J Needles |
