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 appeared in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee as Simone. She returned to theater in the early 1990s, and to Broadway as Charlotte Cardoza in Titanic.
Movies: Mayflower Madam (1986), Love, Lies and Murder (1991), The Stepford Husbands (1996). The episode, " The Witness", Matlock 1990
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 as well as to perform in Pittsburgh theatre until her death on September 9, 2004.
