Warren Clarke (born "Alan James Clarke" on 26th April 1947 in Oldham, died 12th November 2014 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire) played four different roles on Coronation Street:
- Barry, a loader who worked at Mitchell's furniture warehouse in August 1965
- Kenny Pickup, a shifter at Elliston's Raincoat Factory in June 1966
- Art student Tim Jordan in February 1968
- Elsie Tanner's nephew Gary Bailey, in June of the same year.
Just a few weeks before the first of these roles, he appeared in an episode of the Street spin-off Pardon the Expression, a series in which he made two appearances in two different roles in the following year.
Leaving school aged fifteen, his first job was as a runner at the Manchester Evening News. Meanwhile, he gained experience in am-dram and performed in rep at Huddersfield before pursuing a full-time acting career. It was also around this time he changed his forename to "Warren", as his then-girlfriend had a crush on American actor Warren Beatty.
Best remembered to television audiences as gruff police detective Andy Dalziel in the BBC series Dalziel and Pascoe, a role he played from 1996 to 2007, he also appeared in Crossroads, Inheritance, Softly Softly: Task Force, Crown Court, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, Our Mutual Friend, The Onedin Line, Wolcott, The Antagonists, Shelley, Bergerac, The Jewel in the Crown, Boon, Wish Me Luck, Nice Work, The Manageress, Sleepers, All Good Things, Gone to the Dogs, Conjugal Rites, Moving Story, The Locksmith, Down to Earth, Bleak House, The Invisibles, In with the Flynns and Poldark.
Film roles included a major part in the controversial 1971 Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, along with The Virgin Soldiers, Antony and Cleopatra, Dirty Money, Hawk the Slayer, Lassiter and Crusoe.
On stage, he appeared in productions of Three Months Gone, The Changing Room, Murderer, Four to One, Tales from the Vienna Woods, The Camilla Ringbinder Show, Lark Rise and Bill Kenwright's Three Days in May.
