John Clark (Tom Clancy character) John Clark (Tom Clancy character) John T. Clark (real name John Terrence Kelly) is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy. Clark is Clancy’s second most famous character after Jack Ryan, and has been featured in many of his Ryanverse novels. Although he first appeared in "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" (1987), his origin story was detailed in "Without Remorse" (1993). Clark has been described by his creator as "Ryan’s dark side" and "more inclined to take physical action than Jack is." A former Navy SEAL, he became an operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, and at one point
Parker (Stark novels character) in "Slayground"), Mel Gibson (as Porter in "Payback"), and Jason Statham (as Parker in "Parker"). Author Dan Simmons has paid homage to Westlake and his Parker character with three hard-boiled action novels featuring the character of Joe Kurtz, a past and current private investigator who spent time in Attica prison. The first novel, "Hardcase", is dedicated to Richard Stark/Donald Westlake. In the third Kurtz novel, "Hard as Nails", Kurtz mentions that he did not know his father, but that he was a career criminal thief who went by a single name and would have sex with women after a job,