Caitlin Clarke

Caitlin Clarke, born Katherine Anne Clarke on May 3, 1952, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was an American actress whose career spanned film, television, and stage. The oldest of five sisters — the youngest being Victoria Clarke — she grew up in Pittsburgh before her family relocated to Sewickley when she was ten. Clarke earned a B.A. in theater arts from Mount Holyoke College in 1974, followed by an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama in 1978. During her final year at Yale, she performed with the Yale Repertory Theater, appearing in productions including Tales from the Vienna Woods.

Clarke first gained wide recognition through her role as Valerian in the 1981 fantasy film Dragonslayer. Her Broadway career ran from 1983 to 1997, during which she appeared in Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap, Arms and the Man, Strange Interlude, and The Marriage of Figaro. Following three Broadway appearances in 1985, she relocated to Los Angeles to pursue film and television work. In 1986, she appeared in Crocodile Dundee as Simone and in an episode of The Equalizer titled "Torn," playing Jessie Moore, the mother of a character portrayed by a nine-year-old Melissa Joan Hart.

Clarke returned to theater in the early 1990s and came back to Broadway as Charlotte Cardoza in the 1998–1999 musical Titanic. Between 1997 and 2000, she held a recurring role on Law & Order as Defense Attorney Linda Walsh.

In 2000, Clarke was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She returned to Pittsburgh, where she taught theater at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Pittsburgh Musical Theater's Rauh Conservatory, and continued performing in Pittsburgh theater until her death on September 9, 2004.