Jack DeWayne Clay (born October 20, 1926 in Decatur, Illinois) is an American acting teacher, director and actor.
A graduate of the Northwestern University school of speech under Alvina Krause, Clay taught at Oberlin College (1956 - 1957), the University of Miami (1957 - 1961), and the University of South Florida (1961 - 1966). He also headed the Professional Actors Training Programs at Southern Methodist University (1966 - 1986) and the University of Washington (1986 - 1991.) While in Dallas, He founded "Stage #1," a professional acting company, and served as its artistic director for eight years.
Clay's teachers included Lee Strasberg, Martha Graham and Eric Hawkins. Among his best known students are Kathy Bates, Powers Boothe, Patricia Richardson, Stephen Tobolowsky, Beth Henley and Hugh O'Gorman (of Remember WENN).
Clay is also a distinguished member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.
Famous quotes containing the words jack and/or clay:
“Class isn’t something you buy. Look at you. You have a $500 suit on and you’re still a lowlife.”
—Roger Spottiswoode, U.S. screenwriter, Walter Hill, and Larry Gross. Jack Cates (Nick Nolte)
“Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)