Mark McClafferty
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Mark McClafferty is an American film and television producer and writer.
[edit] Early life
Mark McClafferty was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He attended the Alexis I. Du Pont School in Greenville, Delaware and then the University of Delaware where he was elected as its Student Government President in 1970. It was at the University that Mark became a potent speaker for student rights and an advocate against the war in Vietnam. His reputation caught the attention of the Ad Hoc Committee of Members of the House of Representatives for the Policy in South East Asia who asked him to present his views before Congress on the Viet Nam War.
After graduating from the University, Mark was hired by Gary Hart to work for Senator George McGovern early in the 1972 primary campaign. McClafferty continued working for McGovern, traveling to many of the primary states during his successful drive to gain the Democratic Presidential nomination in Miami that year. At the convention, Mark was approached by future Senator Joseph R. Biden to return to Delaware and assist him in his first Senate Campaign. Mark agreed, and the 30 year old Biden was elected to the Senate that year.
[edit] Film and Television Career
In 1973, Mark traveled West to soon join the ABC network, first as manager and then as Director of Program Research. In three short years, Mark moved into his first creative job in the motion picture and television industry at Paramount Pictures, working as Director of Creative Affairs for Miller/Milkus/Boyett Productions. During his work at Paramount, Mark developed new programs and supervised ongoing hit shows such as Happy Days, Mork and Mindy, Laverne and Shirley, Angie and Bosom Buddies, Tom Hanks first venture in Hollywood.
Moving back to ABC as a program executive, Mark was promoted to Director of Dramatic Programming for the network. Mark and his staff were responsible for supervising such successful shows as: Hart to Hart, Dynasty, Fantasy Island, Hotel, Hardcastle & McCormick and Greatest American Hero. It was during this period, that Mark met prolific producer Glen A. Larson and joined him at Twentieth Century Fox as the company’s Executive Vice President and Producer. The company had a streak of many of TV’s most successful programs with five shows on the air during Mark’s tenure, including The Fall Guy, Cover Up, and Magnum P.I. and Trauma Center.
Mark was then recruited by Eddie Murphy to return to Paramount Pictures to join Eddie Murphy Television Productions as its President. He served in this position for seven years, directing all operations. Under his direction the company sold eight network shows, including CBS’s successful, The Royal Family, starring Redd Foxx and Della Reese, which Mark Executive Produced and wrote and the highly acclaimed What’s Alan Watching, which the television critics picked as the best Comedy Special of 1991. Mark also produced the hugely successful Best of Eddie Murphy Saturday Night Live Video and the movie, The Kid Who Loved Christmas which starred Cicely Tyson, Charlie Murphy, Vanessa L. Williams, Ray Parker Jr., Ester Rolle and Sammy Davis Jr. in his last movie.
In 1996, Mark and his partner, Pamela Edwards, formed Spellbound Pictures Ltd USA and completed a $60,000,000.00, 12 picture deal with Ellipse/Canal “+, the French Entertainment giant to supply the United Artist Theatre Circuit with a steady flow of family friendly films. Mark was named Chairman of the consortium. It was under this deal that Spellbound completed The Climb, which was released February 26, 1999.
The Climb won ten major film festival awards including, Vienna, Giffoni, Berlin (UNICEF AWARD) Houston and Montreal. The Climb has run on HBO, SHOWTIME, ENCORE and STARS and is currently in video stores world-wide.
In 2000, Mark co-found On The Mark Entertainment, Inc., with Pamela Edwards McClafferty. Spellbound Pictures and On The Mark Entertainment, Inc. have several projects in development, one company which they are partnered in recently released Katt Williams Live, which is airing on Comedy Central and out on DVD through Image Entertainment.
Mark is a member of Who's Who In America.
