John Clark (Tom Clancy character)
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John Terrence Clark (real name John Terrence Kelly) is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy who appears in many of Clancy's novels. He is an Irish American Catholic.
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[edit] Personal life
He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. John's father was a fireman. He lost his mother when he was a young boy.
[edit] Professional Life
He has performed missions for the U.S. Navy SEALs in Vietnam, murdered drug dealers in revenge for his girlfriend, Pam Madden's, murder, was recruited by an admiral James Greer into the CIA (and staged his own death right under his Coast Guard petty officer friend's nose) in Without Remorse, one of Clancy's most violent books. He has also helped a Soviet official's wife and daughter defect in The Cardinal of the Kremlin, apprehended and subsequently interrogated two Muslim terrorists in The Sum of All Fears, rescued an abandoned secret military unit in Clear and Present Danger, rescued a Japanese politician who later became prime minister in Debt of Honor, and tracked down the source of a bioterrorism plague in Executive Orders. Though John Clark went into action in the operations mentioned earlier, Tom Clancy suggests that Clark's "day job" was head instructor at "the farm", the CIA's Camp Peary training facility for future field agents. He later founded the multinational counterterrorist organization RAINBOW in Rainbow Six, which defeated several terrorist groups and prevented yet another bioterrorism plague before assaulting a Chinese ballistic missile base in The Bear and the Dragon.
He is married to Sandra O'Toole, a nurse who aided in his recovery in a hospital in Without Remorse after a botched recon attempt involving drug runners, and has two daughters, Maggie and Patricia. Patricia is married to Domingo "Ding" Chavez, veteran of a black military operation in Colombia, Clark's recruit and partner at CIA and leader of an assault team at RAINBOW. In Rainbow Six Patricia gives birth to a son, John Conor Chavez, making Clark a grandfather.
John Clark has been awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star with a repeat cluster, Bronze Star with Valor devices and three repeats, three Purple Hearts and four Intelligence Stars. He is also recipient of the Medal Of Honor, awarded and presented to him by Jack Ryan (then President of the U.S.) for some secret mission during his time in Vietnam (see The Teeth of the Tiger). He is a Simulated Major General (two-stars) in the Rainbow Six book, though he only reached the rank of Chief Boatswain's Mate (Chief Petty Officer) during his Naval career.
Parallels can be drawn between John Clark and Jack Ryan, who both exist within the same fictional universe (Ryanverse). Clark is more capable of bending the rules and operating outside the law than Ryan is, so Clancy uses him in grittier roles. Clark also loathes the "desk work" that Ryan typically finds himself "at home" doing. Clancy himself has stated that John Clark is the "dark side" of Jack Ryan.
[edit] In movies
On film, John Clark has been portrayed by Willem Dafoe in Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in The Sum of All Fears. Oscar-nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix has been cast as Kelly/Clark in the upcoming film version of Without Remorse.
