Melinda Clarke is a popular television actress who has enjoyed almost two decades of steady work on hit TV shows. However, it is a well known fact that she got her first big start in the horror genre. Clarke was born in the state of California in April 1969. By the time she was 18, she moved to Los Angeles in hopes of beginning her career as an actress and model. Just two years later she found herself playing the role of Faith Taylor on soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” a role she’d hold for two years.
Shortly after soap opera fame she began her stint with horror film fame after she booked the lead role of Julie in 1993’s Return of the Living Dead III. At the time, the film was a box office disaster, although now it is recognized as a cult classic which contains an iconic horror film character. Next, Clarke became a recurring character on “Heaven Help Us” in 1994 before she landed another lead role, as Candy, in Killer Tongue (1996). In the same year she had a guest appearance on “Strange Luck,” with continued guest spots happening for much of 1997 in shows like “Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Seinfeld” and “Sliders.”
It was rumored that Melinda had turned down the role of Tatum Riley in Scream (1996) due to her fear of being typecast in horror films, but that didn’t stop her from taking the role of Jessica in Spawn near the end of 1997. To end the first decade of her career, she finished off the 1990s with a recurring role on “Soldiers of Fortune” from 1997 to 1999.
So, where is Melinda Clarke now?
She continued to mainly act in television with guest appearances on shows including “The Pretender,” “Star Trek: Enterprise,” “Charmed,” “Everwood,” “Tremors” and “Firefly” from 2000 to 2003. During this time she returned to horror as the supporting character, Agent Williams, in .com for Murder (2002) as well as turning down a role in The Hitcher II: I’ve Been Waiting (2003). Since then, Clarke has stayed with television as a recurring star on shows such as “The O.C.” from 2003 to 2007, “The Vampire Diaries” in 2010, “CSI” from 2001 to 2011, “Entourage” from 2005 – 2011, “Nikita” from 2010 – 2013 and “Dallas” in 2014.
I’ll still hold out some hope that she’ll return to the horror genre one day soon!
Hopefully Shout Factory or another company will release the unrated version of ROTLD 3 sometime soon.