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Roy Linwood Clark (born April 15 1933) is one of
the most versatile and well-known country music
musicians and performers.  He is best known for
hosting one of the first nationally televised
country variety shows in the United States, Hee
Haw from 1969 - 1992.

Clark has been an iconic figure in country music,
both as a musician and as a popularizer of country
music.  Clark is an entertainer, most of all, with
an amiable personality and a telegenic presence.

In the '70s, Roy Clark frequently guest-hosted for
Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enjoyed a
30,000,000 viewership for "Hee Haw."  As both a
guitarist and banjo player, Clark is a virtuoso. 
While he has had hit songs (e.g. "Yesterday, When
I was Young" and "Thank God and Greyhound"), his
instrumental skill has had an enormous impact on
succeeding generations of both bluegrass
music|bluegrass and country musicians.

At the age of 14, Clark began playing banjo,
guitar, and mandolin, and he won two National
Banjo Championships by the age of 17.  He was
simultaneously pursuing a sporting career, first
as a baseball player, and then as a boxing|boxer,
before switching over to music full time.  At the
age of 17, he had his first appearance on the
Grand Ole Opry.

By 1955, he was a regular on Jimmy Dean's
Washington, D.C. television program.  When Dean
left the show, Clark took over.  In 1960, Clark
went out to Las Vegas.  He was spotted by talent
managers and invited to appear on The Tonight
Show, and he also appeared on The Beverly
Hillbillies as a recurring character.  In 1963,
Clark signed to Capitol Records and had three top
10 hits.  He switched labels to Dot Records and
again had hits.

In 1969, Clark and Buck Owens were the hosts of
Hee Haw. The show was dropped by CBS Television in
1971 but continued to run in syndication for
twenty more years.

In recent years, he has performed predominantly at
his own theater in Branson, Missouri.

==Film roles==
He appeared as an actor in Matilda (1978), the
television special Country Comes Home (1982),
Uphill All the Way (1986), and Freeway (1988).

==Television and film as himself==
As himself, Clark has appeared in numerous
television programs, beginning in "Swing Out,
Sweet Land" (1970) and followed by: the "Bell
Telephone Jubilee" (1976), the "Captain & Tennille
Special" (1976), "Fair Weather Friends" (1977),
the "EPCOT Center" opening celebration (1982),
"Disneyland's 30th Anniversary Celebration"
(1985), the "6th Annual National Songwriter
Awards" (1986), the "Grand Ole Opry 65th
Anniversary" (1991), the "Grand Ole Opry 70th
Anniversary" (1996), and "A Bing Crosby Christmas"
(1998).  He also appeared as himself in the film
Gordy (1995).

==External links==
* http://www.roy-clark.com/ Official site
*imdb name|id=0164450|name=Roy Clark