ROBIN CLARKE

MUSIC EDITOR 1932 - 2000

Robin Clarke, one of the Association of Motion Picture Sound’s four Music Editor Members, died aged 68 in Kingston-on-Thames Hospital on July 22 from multiple myeloma. As a consequence of the illness, which started last year and attacks the immune system and bones, he had taken the decision to retire from active film making. His funeral was held at Leatherhead Crematorium on August 1 and was attended by around seventy people including several generations of family, friends, neighbours, university contemporaries and a significant number of fellow editors and other film industry friends.

I met Robin in the summer of 1967, he was Music Editor on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and I was an employee of Anvil at Denham where pre-scoring sessions were in progress (I had in fact just joined Anvil and this was my first experience of film work).

Born on January 5 1932 in New Maiden, Surrey, he was christened Christopher Clarke, but was known by his family as Robin from his earliest years. In 1945 he joined his brother, Graham, at Charterhouse, followed by National Service from 1950 to 1952, which as a commissioned officer in the Royal Artillery took him to Malta and Libya. He then went on a bursary to Magdalene College Cambridge, achieving a degree in history. His wide interests included ornithology, photography, walking, swimming, canoeing, reading, listening to music and conservation - especially the Kennet & Avon Canal, the National Trust and RSPB. He had a fine stamp collection and had completed a novel just before he died. In 1973 he was jointly credited for the screenplay for Tales From Beyond The Grave (Kevin Connor’s first directorial assignment).

His ambition was to write and he was introduced to the film industry by an uncle who edited a film trade publication. One of his earliest jobs was as second assistant editor on The Ladykillers (1955), Ealing Studios’ penultimate movie before exile to Boreham Wood. For several years he was assistant to Gordon Stone until Gordon’s death in November 1964, working on many Disney projects during this period. Perhaps Robin got his enthusiasm for poker from Gordon; there were many card schools in the cutting-rooms at that time.

He was assistant to Carroll B Knudson, Music Editor on Half a Sixpence (David Heneker, 1967), this was quickly followed by the step up to Music Editor on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Sherman Brothers, 1968). Other credits as Music Editor included Cross of Iron (Ernest Gold, 1977), Rock Show for which he also had joint picture editing credit (Wings, 1979), Flash Gordon (Howard Blake and Queen, 1980), Clash Of The Titans (Laurence Rosenthal, 1981), Yentl (Alan and Marilyn Bergman & Michel Legrand, 1983),

this was the only other film that I actually worked on with Robin, Passage To India (Maurice Jarre, 1984), Revolution (John Corigliano, 1985), Aliens jointly with Michael Clifford (James Homer, 1986), Batman (Danny Elfman and the artist at that time known as Prince, 1989), Stepping Out (Kander, Ebb, Matz, 1991), Blame it On the Bellboy (Trevor Jones, 1991), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (Vangelis, 1992), Twelve Monkeys (Paul Buckmaster, 1995), Restoration (James Newton Howard, 1995), Donnie Brasco (Patrick Doyle, 1997) and Seven Years in Tibet (source music, 1997). 

When we were working on Chitty Robin, Eric Tomlinson and I had regular Monday dominoes evenings usually at The Swan in Denham and though this was not for money Robin seemed to manage to play and simultaneously battle with a fruit machine thus satisfying the gambler in him. At this time he was swimming regularly and had short cropped hair that was in later years to progress into a greying ponytail but always combined with a ruddy open-air complexion. He confided in me once that though he loved the outdoor life he met his match in Sam Peckinpah who insisted, in winter when working at Elstree, on having a barbecue outside the cutting-room. His super fitness in earlier days would burst out in wrestling matches down the cutting-room corridors with a young Tony Hunt, or in hauling himself up onto the outside first floor gantry to reach his Pinewood cutting-room, instead of using the stairs. For a long time he had a battered VW with canoe-carriers on the roof, and loved the Island at Thames Ditton, where he lived for thirty-seven years. I have many happy memories of visits there to play Diplomacy (a very complex and prolonged board game requiring a large number of players). This would involve parking the car nearby and negotiating a pedestrian-only toll bridge to gain access. The best way to approach his house was in fact by boat and over the years many of us did just that. On one such occasion, when we were on holiday on a narrow boat my children were particularly impressed by the fact that there was a large void under the house (in anticipation of flooding the property was elevated on piers) that was filled with canoes and other river paraphernalia.

Wonderful company: even at the end of a very long day he could still be very witty, he was a brilliant relater of long-winded jokes. Always courteous and gently spoken, with a mellifluous voice that was never raised even in tense situations with all around him snarling. Robin was unmarried; our sympathies go out to his sister Alison Crane, and older brother Graham. 

So often when reading an obituary I wish I had known the subject because they are portrayed as such an interesting person. For those who did not know Robin and have read this I hope that I have left them with that impression; a true gentleman.

TIM BLACKHAM