Clement Samuel Wilenchick (1900 – 1957)
Born in New York City, Clement Wilenchick was a painter in modernist style of figures; his subjects were often circus figures. He grew up in New York and attended public and elementary schools in New York City, in France, and in Wales. He went to a private high school in New York City called Ethical Cultural School. Wilenchick had a year at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a few months at the Art Student College in New York City. He also attended Sargents Academy of Dramatic Art in New York City.
He exhibited with the San Francisco Art Association.
Some of his abstract work incorporated the mixed media gouache and pastel with subjects like steamboats, fishes and faces.
Clement Wilenchick was also an actor. By the 1930s, he was living in Hollywood. He acted under the stage name of Crane Whitley and made his first film appearance in 1938. Many of his roles were uncredited but other roles were in more notable movies like Hopalong Cassidy, The Desert Fox: The story of Rommel and Red Mountain. Between 1924 and 1936 he performed in over dozen Broadway Shows.
Clement Wilenchick also designed sets and costumes at the American Laboratory Theatre. He acted in “The House of Connelly” (1931) while part of the Theater
At one stage Clem Wilenchick was investigated for belonging to the Communist Party and for so-called “Un-American” activities.
He died in Los Angeles in 1957.
