Johnny Clarke
(1829-1879)
as Napoléon III

Born in or about 1829. John Clarke was the son of merchant Joseph Clarke.

According to his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (1887), he began his working life as a photographer in London’s Farringdon Street, but ‘this employment he quitted to become general utility actor in various country theatres. […] His first distinct success was won in burleque. […] His chief triumphs were in the Bonnie Fishwife, as Isaac of York, and as Varney. Clarke then played with Webster at the Adelphi, at the Olympic, where his Quilt obtained much approval, at the Globe and in pantomime at Covent Garden. […] He was a competent actor, with a grating voice and a hard style. His burlesque dancing was marred by an accident to his let experienced while riding on horseback.’

On 10 August 1872 at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk he married the well-known actress Teresa Furtado, whose early death on 9 August 1877, at the age of only 32, left him a broken man. She had recently given birth to their second child but had the previous summer suffered ‘a severe attack of pleurisy and congestion of the lungs’ (Holloway Press, 18 August 1877). 

John Clarke died, aged 51, on 20 February 1879 at 15 Torriano Avenue, his home in Camden. His last appearance on the stage was at the Criterion. 

‘The death also took place yesterday of Mr John Clark. This clever comedian lately became afflicted with consumption, and his death has been remarkably sudden. He first appeared in London at Drury Lane October 7, 1852, as Fathom in the play of The Hunchback, after some three years’ provincial experience of the stage’ (Glasgow Evening Citizen, 21 February 1879). 

‘Mr John Clark, the English actor of that name, who was well known in Manchester, died yesterday morning at his residence in London. He was most successful in comedy and farce. It will also be remembered that he married Miss Furtardo, who died a few years ago’ (Manchester Evening News, 21 February 1879). 

According to an inscription on the album page, he is seen here as the French emperor Napoléon III, nephew of the Corsican colossus, although I can't find any production in which he appeared in this role.