LOS ANGELES — Dick Clark, the youthful-looking television personality who literally introduced rock ‘n’ roll to much of the nation on “American Bandstand” and for four decades was the first and last voice many Americans heard each year with his New Year’s Eve countdowns, died Wednesday. He was 82.
Clark suffered a heart attack following an outpatient procedure at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, according to a statement by his longtime publicist, Paul Shefrin.
Clark’s health had been in question since a 2004 stroke affected his speech and mobility, but that year’s Dec. 31 countdown was the only one he missed since he started the annual rite during the Nixon administration.
With the exception of Elvis Presley, Clark was considered by many to be the person most responsible for the bonfire spread of rock ‘n’ roll across the country in the late 1950s.
“Bandstand” gave fans a way to hear and see rock’s emerging idols in a way that radio and magazines could not. It made Clark a household name and gave him the foundation for a shrewdly pursued broadcasting career that made him wealthy, powerful and present in American television for half a century.
Nicknamed “America’s oldest teenager” for his fresh-scrubbed look, Clark and “American Bandstand” not only gave young fans what they wanted, they gave their parents a measure of assurance that this new music craze was not as scruffy or as scary as they feared.
He helped transform rock ‘n’ roll into a cultural force, and in the beginning he did it by introducing artists such as Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets, James Brown, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers for the first time. All made their national television debuts on “Bandstand.”
As the music matured through the years, Clark played a potent role in star-shaping, and the Mamas and the Papas and Madonna would join the long and eclectic list of performers who got that first big boost on “Bandstand.” Clark himself joined many of his show’s guests in 1993 when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Clark would host “Bandstand” until 1989, leaving just a few months before the show’s cancellation.
On “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” launched in 1972, he counted down the last moments of every year from Times Square in Manhattan.
He found a surprise hit in the 1980s with “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes,” a franchise that correctly banked on the appeal of Hollywood stars flubbing their lines. His work and investments went into game shows, among them “$20,000 Pyramid” and “Scattergories,” as well as television movies such as “Murder in Texas” and “Elvis!”
One of Clark’s most telling ventures was in the awards-show sector.
In 1974, a dispute between ABC and the organizers of the Grammys led to an opening that Clark recognized as a new turf for his music and television expertise. ABC had balked at the plan to broadcast the Grammys from Nashville, Tenn., so the network and the venerable gala divorced. Clark and ABC filled the void with the American Music Awards. The AMAs, unlike the Grammys, judges its winners based on sales data and public surveys, which seemed to suit Clark’s old “Bandstand” tradition of letting the kids grade the songs.
The AMAs became a template for Clark; his production company’s banner flies now over the Emmy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Family Television Awards.
Clark returned again and again to the legacy of his beloved “Bandstand” with numerous archival projects and tie-ins, including television specials, home-video compilations and even a small restaurant chain that includes American Bandstand airport eateries in Indianapolis and Newark, N.J.
Thirty-seven years after its founding, Dick Clark Productions Inc. was sold in 2002 for $136 million to a group of private investors. Clark stayed on as chairman and chief executive.
Clark’s workload never slacked until his stroke in 2004. That year he acknowledged publicly that a decade earlier he had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, becoming a famous face for a public-awareness campaign.
Clark is survived by his third wife, Kari Wigton Clark, whom he married in 1977. He also is survived by his children from two previous marriages, sons Richard and Duane and daughter Cindy.
