clark began his career in 1933 at the poverty row studio, tower productions. the first film he worked on was the crime drama, "the important witness". in 1934 he would begin his long association with columbia pictures, on lambert hillyer's crime drama, "men of the night". his work on the 1937 screwball comedy, "the awful truth", starring irene dunne and cary grant, earned him the first of his five academy award for best film editing nominations. in 1939 clark co-edited, along with gene havlick, frank capra's classic "mr. smith goes to washington", which stars jean arthur and james stewart. the two editors were nominated for an academy award, losing to the editors for "gone with the wind". his third nomination came in 1940 for the classic political drama, "all the king's men", shared with robert parrish. the winner that year was harry w. gerstad for "champion". in 1958, he and william a. lyon edited the western "cowboy", starring glenn ford and jack lemmon. however, the editing award that year went to adrienne fazan for "gigi". clark's fifth and final oscar nomination came in 1961, for his work on "pepe", which he co-edited by viola lawrence. that year the oscar went to daniel mandell for "the apartment". his long association with columbia came to an end in 1962, with clark's work on "the interns". after his departure from columbia, clark edited only two more films: the 1963 comedy "hootenanny hoot", for mgm; and the 1969 elvis presley western, "charro!".