1952-04-07 ( 72 years old ) in New York City, New York, USA
Peter Clarke (born April 7, 1952), known professionally as Clarke Peters, is an American actor, writer, and director, who has spent much of his adult life in the United Kingdom. He is best known for his roles as Lester Freamon in the television series The Wire (2002–2008) and Albert Lambreaux in the television series Treme (2010–2013). He also wrote the book for the musical revue Five Guys Named Moe (1990).
Peters is also known for his roles in the films Silver Dream Racer (1980), Endgame (2009), John Wick (2014), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Harriet (2019), and Da 5 Bloods (2020), the lattermost of which earned him a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Peters was born Peter Clarke, the second of four sons, in New York City, and grew up in Englewood, New Jersey. At the age of 12, he had his first theater experience, in a school production of My Fair Lady. He began to have serious ambitions to work in the theater at the age of 14. He graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in 1970.
In 1971, Peters' older brother enabled him to work as a costume designer for a production of the musical Hair in Paris, in which Peters later starred. In 1973, Peters moved to London and changed his name to Clarke Peters, because Equity already had a few namesake members. While in London, he formed a soul band, The Majestics, and worked as a backup singer on such hits as "Love and Affection" by Joan Armatrading, "Boogie Nights" by Heatwave, and some David Essex songs. However, music was not Peters' main ambition, and he preferred to work in the theater.
His first West End theatre musical roles, which he received with assistance from his friend Ned Sherrin, were I Gotta Shoe (1976) and Bubbling Brown Sugar (1977). Other West End credits include Blues in the Night, Porgy and Bess, The Witches of Eastwick, Guys and Dolls, Chicago, and Chess. Peters starred in the Sean Connery space Western Outland (1981) as the treacherous Sgt. Ballard, and he played an almost wordless role as Anderson, a vicious pimp in Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa (1986).
Peters is familiar to television viewers as Detective Lester Freamon in the HBO series The Wire. Peters also starred in the HBO mini-series The Corner, portraying a drug addict named Fat Curt, as well as the FX series Damages, as Dave Pell. Both The Wire and The Corner were created by writer and former The Baltimore Sun journalist David Simon. Peters also stars in Simon's HBO series Treme, in the role of Mardi Gras Indian chief Albert Lambreaux. Peters appeared in two episodes of the American time-travel/detective TV series Life on Mars (2008) as NYPD Captain Fletcher Bellow.
He also appeared in the British show Holby City, as Derek Newman, the father of nurse Donna Jackson. He voiced a part in the Doctor Who animated episode Dreamland, and in the In Plain Sight episode "Duplicate Bridge" as a man in Witness Protection named Norman Baker/Norman Danzer. In 2010, Peters read Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption for BBC 7. In that year, he also had a guest appearance as Professor Mark Ramsay in the pilot episode of the USA Network TV series Covert Affairs. From 2012 to 2013, Peters had a recurring role as Alonzo D. Quinn in the CBS TV series Person of Interest.
Movies
Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin
2024-11-20
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
2022-12-20
BBC Proms - The Golden Age of Broadway
2022-06-02
Cameron Mackintosh - The First 50 Years
2021-12-27
The Royale
2021-04-22
Come Away
2020-11-12
Count Basie: Through His Own Eyes
2020-09-13
Da 5 Bloods
2020-06-12
The Mandela Effect
2019-12-06
Christmas Under the Stars
2019-11-16
Harriet
2019-11-01
The Opera Game
2019-02-03
An Acceptable Loss
2019-01-18
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2017-12-01
Division 19
2017-02-24
Rebirth in New Orleans
2016-09-21
Fats Domino and The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll
2016-02-26
Roy Orbison: One of the Lonely Ones
2015-12-29
The Benefactor
2015-12-23
The Bad Education Movie
2015-08-21
Sean Connery: In His Own Words
2015-08-18
Grace
2014-10-28
John Wick
2014-10-22
The Best of Me
2014-10-15
Red Hook Summer
2012-08-10
Searching for Sonny
2011-10-22
Legacy
2010-10-15
Locked In
2010-09-17
Nativity!
2009-11-27
Turnipseed
2009-11-09
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
2009-09-25
Chess in Concert
2009-06-17
Endgame
2009-01-18
Marley & Me
2008-12-25
Gigantic
2008-09-09
The Poker House
2008-06-20
Sympathetic Details
2008-02-01
The Wire: The Last Word
2007-12-27
The Wire Odyssey
2007-12-20
Tapping the Wire
2007-07-01
Freedomland
2006-02-17
James Brown: Soul Survivor
2003-10-29
Head of State
2003-03-28
Notting Hill
1999-05-21
Death Train
1993-04-14
The Nicholas Brothers: We Sing and We Dance
1992-11-29
A Masculine Ending
1992-04-12
A Casualty of War
1989-12-02
Red King, White Knight
1989-11-25
Up Line
1987-02-04
Mona Lisa
1986-06-13
Facelift
1984-04-21
King
1984-04-03
Saigon: Year Of The Cat
1983-11-29
Outland
1981-05-22
Silver Dream Racer
1980-06-13
Number on End
1980-01-01
The Music Machine
1979-05-01
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