Clark Johnson

Template:Short description Template:For multi Template:Wikidata image Clark Johnson (born September 10, 1954) is an American-Canadian actor and director who has worked in both television and film. He is best known for his roles as David Jefferson in Night Heat (1985–1988), Clark Roberts in E.N.G. (1989–1994), Meldrick Lewis in Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999) and Augustus Haynes in The Wire (2008). He is an Emmy Award and two-time Genie Award nominee.

Early years

Johnson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an Afro-Caribbean father from Trinidad and Tobago and a white mother. The family later moved to Canada. He has three siblings including jazz singer Molly Johnson and actress and singer Taborah Johnson.

Johnson attended Eastern Michigan University on a partial athletic scholarship for American football, but he was expelled after he was caught stealing food from the school cafeteria. He attended several other universities including the University of Ottawa and Loyola College/Concordia University, where he played Canadian football, before ending up at the Ontario College of Art as a film major. He was drafted by the Toronto Argonauts in the seventh round of the 1978 CFL draft but ultimately did not play professionally.

Career

Johnson started in film doing special effects, including David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone. This behind-the-scenes work often served as a "backup" for him during the early stages of his acting career.

He began performing in feature films in 1981, landing roles in the films Killing 'em Softly, Colors, Wild Thing, Adventures in Babysitting, and Nowhere to Hide. He also acted in a number of television shows early in his career, including The Littlest Hobo, Night Heat, Hot Shots and E.N.G.. He starred in the first episode of The Women of Brewster Place in 1989 as Butch Fuller.

Homicide: Life on the Street

In 1993, Johnson became part of the original cast of the television series Homicide: Life on the Street playing Detective Meldrick Lewis for all seven seasons and the reunion movie, as well as directing several episodes. Johnson regularly improvised during filming and made up his own jokes and dialogue; writer and producer James Yoshimura called Clark the "king of the ad lib". Although the ensemble nature of the show meant that Johnson never played a minor role, he became an even larger presence after his character was paired with a new partner, Mike Kellerman (played by Reed Diamond). The two detectives became the central figures in a plot line surrounding a Baltimore drug lord whose financial resources and front as a devoted community servant make it nearly impossible for the police department to charge him. Johnson made the transition to director with the season four episode "Map of the Heart". He also directed "Betrayal", "Valentine's Day", "Full Court Press" and "The Twenty Percent Solution". David Simon, the author of the non-fiction book Homicide was based upon, as well as a writer and producer for the series, commented that the transition from actor to director was made easy by Johnson's familiarity with the show and that he was one of the better directors in terms of keeping the tone of the show consistent. In 2013, Johnson made a brief cameo as Lewis in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Wonderland Story" when the squad are at a retirement party for John Munch (Richard Belzer).

The Wire

Johnson worked on The Wire, reuniting with writer David Simon. Johnson directed the pilot episode "The Target", the second and fifth first-season episodes, and the series finale. He plays Augustus Haynes, the dedicated and principled editor for The Baltimore Sun city desk.

Alpha House

In 2013, Johnson starred as Sen. Robert Bettencourt (R-PA) in Amazon's Alpha House, a political comedy written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau. Along with John Goodman, Johnson plays one of four Republican senators living together in a house on Capitol Hill. Johnson also directed the season finale for the show's first season. Johnson spent the summer of 2014 filming season two.

Directing

Johnson's other directing credits include the big-screen releases The Sentinel (2006) and S.W.A.T. (2003), and episodes of Third Watch as well as the HBO original production Boycott (2001), a project which he helmed and in which he also acted. He also directed the first episodes of Seasons 1 and 2 of the 2005 mini-series Sleeper Cell. He also directed the first and last episodes of The Shield, along with other episodes of that series.

Johnson directed the pilot episode of the FX drama Lights Out. The series stars fellow The Wire cast members Pablo Schreiber and Reg E. Cathey and focuses on a retired heavyweight boxing champion.

Johnson is a guest instructor at HB Studio.

Filmography

Actor

Clark Johnson television acting credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985–1988	Night Heat	David Jefferson	18 episodes
1986	Hot Shots	Al Pendleton	13 episodes
1988–1992	Katts and Dog	Lennie	3 episodes
1989	The Women of Brewster Place	Butch Fuller	2 episodes
1989–1994	E.N.G.	Clarke Roberts	14 episodes
1991–1992	Hammerman	Hammerman	11 episodes
1993	North of 60	Sonny Ross	Episode "Southern Comfort"
1993–1999	Homicide: Life on the Street	Meldrick Lewis	122 episodes
1998	Cold Squad	Derrick Clark	2 episodes
2000	Deliberate Intent	James Perry	Television film
	Homicide: The Movie	Meldrick Lewis	Television film
2002	Soul Food	Terrell	Episode: "Lovers and Other Strangers"
2005	Tripping the Wire: A Stephen Tree Mystery	Stephen Tree	TV film
2008	The Wire	Gus Haynes	10 episodes
	The Shield	Handsome Marshal	Episode "Family Meeting"
2009	Crash & Burn	Walker Hearn	5 episodes
2012	Unforgettable	Clay Jacobs	Episode "Blind Alleys"
2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Meldrick Lewis	Episode "Wonderland Story"
2013–2014	Alpha House	Senator Robert Bettencourt	21 episodes
2018	Bosch	Howard Elias	4 episodes
	Seven Seconds	KJ's father	Episode "That What Follows"
2019	Evil	Father Amara	4 episodes
2025–present	Daredevil: Born Again	Cherry	7 episodes

Clark Johnson film acting credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Adventures in Babysitting	Black Gang Leader
1988	Iron Eagle II	Graves
1989	Renegades	J.J.
1994	Drop Zone	FBI Agent Bob Covington
	Final Round	Trevon
1995	Rude	Reece
	Soul Survivor	Busha
1997	The Planet of Junior Brown
2000	Love Come Down	Dean
2003	S.W.A.T.	Deke's handsome partner
2006	The Sentinel	Charlie Merriweather
2008	Nurse.Fighter.Boy	Silence
2009	Defendor	Captain Fairbanks
2014	Bird People	McCullan
2015	Hyena Road	General Rilmen
2017	Magnum Opus	Robert Cochran
	Brawl in Cell Block 99	Detective Watkins
2018	222	The King of Hearts	Short film
2019	Tammy's Always Dying	Doug
2025	Late Fame	Arnold
TBA	Mayday

Director

Clark Johnson film and television directing credits

Year	Title	Notes
1996–1998	Homicide: Life on the Street	5 episodes "Map of the Heart" "Betrayal" "Valentine's Day" "Full Court Press" "The Twenty Percent Solution"
1997	Fast Track
1998	Welcome to Paradox
	La Femme Nikita
1999	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Episode: "Sophomore Jinx"
2000	NYPD Blue	Episode: "Lucky Luciano"
	The West Wing	Episode: "Six Meetings Before Lunch"
	The Beat
	Third Watch	Episode: "Nature or Nurture?"
	City of Angels
	The City
2001	Boycott	Television film
2002–2008	The Wire	4 episodes "The Target" "The Detail" "The Pager" "–30–"
	The Shield	7 episodes "Pilot" "The Spread" "Blowback" "Playing Tight" "Blood and Water" "The New Guy" "Family Meeting"
2003	S.W.A.T.	Theatrical film
2004	The Jury	Episode: "Lamentation on the Reservation"
	The Secret Service	Television film
2005	N.Y.-70	Television film
2005–2006	Sleeper Cell	2 episodes "Al-Faitha" "Al-Bagara"
2006	The Sentinel	Theatrical film
2010–2011	Memphis Beat	Episode: "It's All Right Mama"
	King	2 episodes "Lori Gilbert" "T-Bone"
2011	Homeland	5 episodes "Blind Spot" "The Vest" "Tower of David" "The Yoga Play" "Krieg Nicht Lieb"
2012	The Walking Dead	Episode: "Nebraska"
2013	Alpha House	Episode: "In the Saddle"
2014–2015	Hell on Wheels	2 episodes "Bear Man" "Struck"
2015	Black Sails	2 episodes "X" "XII"
	American Odyssey	2 episodes "Bug Out" "Real World"
2016	Mad Dogs	Episode: "Flares"
	Shut Eye	Episode: "The Tower - Reversed"
2016–2018	Luke Cage	2 episodes "You Know My Steez" "For Pete's Sake"
2017	Six	Episode: "Confession"
	Taken	Episode: "A Clockwork Swiss"
2018	The Purge	Episode: "Release The Beast"
2019	Juanita	Theatrical film
2019–2021	City on a Hill	3 episodes "High on the Looming Gallows Tree" "Apophasis" "Pax Bostonia"
2020	Percy	Theatrical film
	Your Honor	Episode: "Part Four"
2021	Mayor of Kingstown	2 episodes "Along Came a Spider" "The Devil Is Us"
2022	Alaska Daily	Episode: "It's Not Personal"
2023–2024	Accused	2 episodes "Kendall's Story" "Marcus' Story"

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
2002	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series	The Shield	Nominated
2018	Canadian Screen Awards	Earle Grey Award		Won
2017	Black Reel Awards	Outstanding Directing, Drama Series	Luke Cage	Nominated
2019	Black Reel Awards	Outstanding Directing, TV Movie/Limited Series	Juanita	Nominated
2017	Black Reel Awards	Outstanding Directing, Drama Series	The Get Down	Nominated

External links

• Clark Johnson at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidata
• 2008 interview on Fresh Air