The comic who spent six seasons as the steady center of a CBS household first made his name selling out comedy rooms in Boston, where a future co-star sat in the audience as a fan.
Anthony Clark, the stand-up comedian and actor who played Greg Warner on the CBS sitcom “Yes, Dear,” died Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, at 62, his longtime manager, Barry Katz, confirmed. His “Yes, Dear” co-star Mike O’Malley announced the death Wednesday, Nov. 11, in posts on X and Instagram paired with behind-the-scenes photographs from the sitcom.
“Anthony Clark died yesterday. He was a hilarious guy,” O’Malley wrote. No official cause has been confirmed; reports say the death involved complications related to pneumonia.
A Fan Before a Friend
O’Malley traced the friendship to The Comedy Connection in Boston, where he first watched Clark work a crowd. He and his wife, Lisa, were dating in the mid-1990s, and Clark was already a name in the city, selling out rooms regularly.
“I was a fan before I was a friend,” O’Malley wrote. He described Clark as a singular performer, a comic who found his own stories and observations as absurd as the audience did and laughed along with the room — a habit O’Malley watched up close through six seasons together on a CBS soundstage.
“We spoke on the phone three weeks ago. He had us laughing loudly as he always did,” O’Malley wrote in his Nov. 11 post announcing the death. In the same post, he addressed what Clark did after the show ended: “He invested his money well and essentially retired after we wrapped. Rest in peace, Tony.”
A Boston Club and the Comics He Floored
Comedian Dane Cook, who said he performed with Clark during their early years in Boston at the Faneuil Hall Comedy Connection, paid tribute on Instagram. “He was one of the best live acts I’ve ever seen. Destroyed to a point he made you wanna quit right then and there while watching him do it effortlessly. This is really terrible to hear,” Cook wrote.
Comedian Nick Swardson wrote on Instagram that Clark “was a massive stand-up out of Boston and I opened for him for years,” drawing a reply from O’Malley in the comments: “Anthony loved you Nick. He was always bragging about your comedy from the get-go.”
Katz also shared a tribute on Instagram, alongside a photo of himself with Clark, Elon Gold, Dave Chappelle and Cook from their early days in stand-up. “Anthony Clark was one of my first clients,” Katz wrote. “Arguably one of the funniest people that I have ever met in my lifetime.”
Greg Garcia, co-creator of “Yes, Dear,” said in a statement that he has been fortunate to count some of the funniest people in the world as friends, and that Clark “had the most insane sense of humor of all of them.”
From Lynchburg to a Shandling Showcase
Clark was born April 4, 1964, in Lynchburg, Va. He earned a degree in mass communications at Emerson College in Boston before starting in stand-up, then spent years selling out comedy rooms in the city well before CBS came calling.
His screen career began in the early 1990s with a role in the PBS series “American Playhouse” and a supporting part in the film “Dogfight.” The national break arrived in 1995 on HBO’s “Young Comedians” special, hosted by Garry Shandling, with Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K. on the bill.
He appeared in the films “The Thing Called Love,” opposite River Phoenix, “The Rock” and “My Uncle Rafael.” On television, he took a recurring role on “Ellen,” starred in the NBC sitcom “Boston Common” and appeared in the ABC sitcom “Soul Man.” His final screen appearance came in 2019 in the series “West of Liberty.”
The Straight Man in 122 Episodes
“Yes, Dear” arrived on CBS in 2000 and ran six seasons and 122 episodes before finishing in 2006. The multi-camera comedy followed two couples living in close proximity with sharply contrasting ideas about raising children.
Clark played Greg Warner as the straight-man husband and father, the steady center holding the line amid the chaos. In 2006 he moved to NBC to host the fourth season of “Last Comic Standing,” then returned to stand-up.
