Matt Clark, Character Actor in a Barnful of Movie Westerns, Dies at 89

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I moved some flower bulbs around earlier this afternoon. I needed a break. "The Culpepper Cattle Company" was on. I was checking the cast notes. Matt Clark's entry had already been updated.

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Matt Clark, Character Actor in a Barnful of Movie Westerns, Dies at 89

He appeared in ‘The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,’ ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,’ ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales,’ ‘Hearts of the West’ and so many other films in the genre.

By Mike Barnes
March 16, 2026 8:56am


Matt Clark Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Matt Clark, the familiar character actor who like sagebrush found his way into Westerns including Paul Newman’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, John Wayne’s The Cowboys and Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales, has died. He was 89.

Clark died Sunday in Austin, Texas, his daughter, producer Amiee Clark, told The Hollywood Reporter. He broke his back a few months ago, she said.

Clark also acted alongside Robert Redford in Sydney Pollack’s Jeremiah Johnson (1972) and Brubaker (1980) — in the latter, he portrayed Purcell, the former warden’s clerk, in one of his best known roles — and opposite Eastwood in Don Siegel’s The Beguiled (1971), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Honkytonk Man (1982).

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