![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/John-Heard-IMDB-1.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn 1990, actor John Heard played what was probably his best-known role \u2014 the father who mistakenly left his youngest son behind on a family trip to Paris, in \u201cHome Alone\u201d (he reprised the role in the 1992 sequel). But his television and film credits number almost 200, and that doesn\u2019t include his extensive theater work. But before he appeared on any stage or screen, Heard \u2014 who died on July 21, 2017 \u2014 was a Clarkie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heard earned a history degree at Clark in 1968, and was heavily involved in the arts on campus, including performing with the Clark University Players Society and the Experimental Theatre for all four year. And he was more than a theater kid. In the 1968 yearbook, his listing in the \u201cSenior Directory\u201d shows someone who was very engaged withthe campus community. On the athletic side, he was a member of the crew team as a freshman and junior (after his death, a fellow rower commented on the Clark Facebook page, \u201cHis quick wit always kept us laughing.\u201d), participated in intramurals every year, and served on the Athletic Council and as Class Sports Officer in his first year. He worked on Helicon, a student-run arts and literature journal, for three years, and was inducted into Gryphon, the senior men\u2019s honor society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And since he was at Clark before Greek life was banned in the early 1070s, Heard was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, and served on the Interfraternity Council as a junior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Bruce](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Stone-Heard-IFC2-1-1.png\")
![\"Freshman](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/John-Heard-student-council-1.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0John Heard started his career playing serious roles in the theater, mostly off-Broadway. Critics praised his wrenching performance as a disabled and emotionally tortured Vietnam veteran in the 1981 film \u201cCutter\u2019s Way,\u201d but he gained recognition mainly for lighter roles in films of the 1980s and \u201990s like \u201cHome Alone,\u201d in which he played Macaulay Culkin\u2019s father, and before that,\u201cBig,\u201d with Tom Hanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heard made his film debut in 1977 in \u201cBetween the Lines,\u201d about a socially conscious alternative newspaper in Boston being taken over by a big company. In a subsequent New York Times interview, when he was performing with The Public Theater in a production of August Strindberg\u2019s \u201cCreditors,\u201d he quipped, \u201cI think this interview is a little premature. I don\u2019t know, maybe after this is over, I\u2019ll go back to Washington and be a plumber\u2019s helper again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He had film roles in \u201cBeaches,\u201d \u201cGladiator\u201d and \u201cThe Pelican Brief,\u201d and made television appearances on shows like \u201cMiami Vice,\u201d \u201cNCIS: Los Angeles\u201d and as a corrupt police detective in \u201cThe Sopranos,\u201d which earned him an Emmy Award nomination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acclaimed actor and \u2018Home Alone\u2019 dad was heavily involved in campus life<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12682,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":12682,"section_label":"Clarkives","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223],"displayed_author":[258],"featured":[],"topic":[232],"class_list":["post-12681","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","displayed_author-melissa-lynch-95-mspc-15","topic-alumni"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"1965](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/John-Heard-crew-1.png\")