Petula Clark – Bio, Net Worth, Age, Husband, Family, Height, Awards

Petula Clark is a well-recognized singer, actress, and composer. She is known for one of the longest-serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than 7 decades. She has sold more than 68 million records till now. She started rising to fame with her song “The Little Shoemaker” in 1954;  the first of her big UK hit, and within two years she began recording in French. Her international successes included “Prends mon coeur”, “Sailor” (a UK number one), “Romeo”, and “Chariot”. Her signature song included “Downtown”, “I Know a Place”, “My Love”, “A Sign of the Times”, “I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love”, “Who Am I”, “Colour My World”, “This Is My Song” (by Charles Chaplin), “Don’t Sleep in the Subway”, “The Other Man’s Grass Is Always Greener”, and “Kiss Me Goodbye”. Being an actress, she is famously known for her role in the musical film “Finian’s Rainbow” and in the stage musicals “The Sound of Music”, “Blood Brothers”, “Sunset Boulevard” and “Mary Poppins”. She is nicknamed “Singing Sweetheart” and also she is known as “Britain’s Shirley Temple”. She was considered a mascot by the British Army, some of whose troops plastered her photos on their tanks for good luck as they advanced into battle. 

What is Petula Clark Famous For?

• Being a British Singer, actress, and Composer.
• Being the first British female to sell a million copies in the USA, the first Female Brit to win two Grammys with Downtown and I Know a Place, and to top the American charts twice with Downtown and My Love. 

Where is Petula Clark From?

Petula Clark was born on 15th November 1932. She took birth in Ewell, Surrey, the UK. Her real name is Sally Olwen Clark. About his parents, he was born to her father, Leslie Noah Clark, and her mother, Doris Clark. Both of Clark’s parents were nurses at Long Grove Hospital in Epsom. She holds British nationality and her ethnicity is Mixed as her mother had Welsh ancestry and her father was English. She celebrated her 89th birthday in 2021. Her stage name “Petula” was invented by her father, who joked that it was a combination of the names of his two former girlfriends, Pet and Ulla. She grew up with her siblings; a sister named Barbara. During the Second World War, Clark lived with her sister at the home of their grandparents in Abercanaid, near Merthyr Tydfil, a small stone house with no electricity or running water, and a toilet at the bottom of the garden. Her grandfather was a coal miner. From an early age, she was inclined towards music and performed at choirs, and restaurants. Her first-ever live audience was at the Colliers’ Arms in Abercanaid. When she was eight, she joined other children to record messages with the BBC to be broadcast to members of their families in the forces. As a child Clark sang in the chapel choir and showed a talent for mimicry, impersonating Vera Lynn, Carmen Miranda, and Sophie Tucker for her family and friends. In 1944, her father introduced her to the theatre when he took her to see Flora Robson in a production of Mary Stuart; she later recalled that after the performance, “I made up my mind then and there I was going to be an actress. … I wanted to be Ingrid Bergman more than anything else in the world.” Her first public performances were as a singer, however: in 1945 she performed with an orchestra in the entrance hall of Bentall’s Department Store in Kingston upon Thames for a tin of toffee and a gold wristwatch. 

Source: @instagram.com/petulaclarkhq

About her education, Petula attended Hanlim Multi Art School. 

Petula Clark Career Timeline

• Petula Clark made her debut singing in 1942 with the BBC channel on the radio with the Song “Mighty Lak’ a Rose”. Next, she toured the United Kingdom with fellow child performer Julie Andrews.
• Later, she performed for George VI, Winston Churchill, and Bernard Montgomery. 
• In the year 1944, when she performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London; she was discovered by the film director Maurice Elvey. She was then cast by Maurice as the precocious orphaned waif Irma in his war drama “Medal for the General” at the age of 12. 
• Next, she performed in Strawberry Roan, I Know Where I’m Going!, London Town, Here Come the Huggetts, Vote for Huggett, and The Huggetts Abroad, the second, third, and fourth of four Huggett Family films. 
• Some of the films she made in the UK during the 1940s and 1950s were B-films, she worked with Anthony Newley in Vice Versa (directed by Peter Ustinov) and Alec Guinness in The Card. 
• Moreover, she also had a small role in I Know Where I’m Going.
• She was featured in the comic Radio Fun, in which she was billed as “Radio’s Merry Mimic” in 1945. 
• After a year, she began her television career with an appearance on a BBC variety show, “Cabaret Cartoons”, which led to her being signed to host her own afternoon series, “Petula Clark. Pet’s Parlou” in 1950.
• She alongside her ex-boyfriend, Joe “Mr Piano” Henderson collaborated musically. 
•  In the year 1949, Henderson introduced Clark to the record producer Alan A. Freeman, who, together with her father Leslie, formed Polygon Records, for which she recorded her earliest hits. 
• After that, she recorded her first release that year, “Put Your Shoes On, Lucy”, for EMI. She scored a number of major hits in the UK during the 1950s, including “The Little Shoemaker” (1954), “Majorca” (1955), “Suddenly There’s a Valley” (1955), and “With All My Heart” (1956). 

Source: @instagram.com/petulaclarkhq

• Polygon Records was sold to Nixa Records at the end of 1955. Later, she was signed by the Pye label in the UK for which she recorded until the early 1970s. 
• She was invited to appear at the Paris Olympia in the year 1957. 
• She embarked on a concert tour of France and Belgium with Sacha Distel in 1960.
• She continued to achieve hit records in the UK into the early 1960s. 
• Her 1961 recording of “Sailor” became her first number-one hit in the UK which was followed by the recordings “Romeo” and “My Friend the Sea”.
• In France “Ya Ya Twist” (a French-language cover of the Lee Dorsey rhythm and blues song “Ya Ya” and the only successful recording of a twist song by a woman) and “Chariot” (the original version of “I Will Follow Him”) became smash hits in 1962, while German and Italian versions of her English and French recordings charted, as well. 
• In the year 1963, she wrote the soundtrack for the French crime film “A Couteaux Tirés (Daggers Drawn) which was released in 1964. Also, She made a cameo appearance as herself in the film. 
• Additional film scores she composed include Entre ciel et mer (1963), Rêves d’enfant (1964), La bande à Bebel (1966), and Pétain (1989). Six themes from the last were released on the CD “In Her Own Write” in the year 2007. 
• She was the subject of “This Is Your Life” in February 1964. In April 1975 and March 1996, she became the only person to receive a television tribute three times. 
• By 1964, her British recording career was foundering.
• Released in four separate languages in late 1964, “Downtown” was a success in the UK, France (in both the English and the French versions), the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, and Italy, and Rhodesia, Japan, India, as well.
• “Downtown” was the first of 15 consecutive Top-40 hits Clark achieved in the U.S., including “I Know a Place”, “My Love” (her second US number-one hit), “A Sign of the Times”, “I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love”, “This Is My Song” (from the Charles Chaplin film A Countess from Hong Kong), and “Don’t Sleep in the Subway”. 
• In the year 2004, her recording of “Downtown” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. 
• Her recording successes led to frequent appearances on American variety programs hosted by Ed Sullivan and Dean Martin, guest shots on Hullabaloo, Shindig!, The Kraft Music Hall, and The Hollywood Palace, and inclusion in musical specials such as The Best on Record and Rodgers and Hart Today.
• She was later the host of two more specials; “The Petula Clark Show” in early 1970.
• She starred in the BBC television series “This Is Petula Clark”, which aired from mid-1966 to early 1968.
• She revived her film career in the late 1960s starring in Finian’s Rainbow (1968), and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969). 
• She toured in concerts in the U.S. throughout the late 1960s. 
• She was one of the backing vocalists on John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band “Give Peace a Chance”.
• During the early 1970s, she had chart singles on both sides of the Atlantic with “Melody Man” (1970), “The Song of My Life” (1971), “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” (1972), “The Wedding Song (There Is Love)” (1972), and “Loving Arms” (1974). In Canada, “Je Voudrais Qu’il Soit Malheureux” was a major hit.
• She continued touring during the 1970s, performing in clubs in the US and Europe.
• On 31st December 1976, she performed her hit song “Downtown” on BBC1’s A Jubilee of Music, celebrating British popular music for Queen Elizabeth II’s impending Silver Jubilee.
• On 31st December 1976, she performed her hit song “Downtown” on BBC1’s A Jubilee of Music, celebrating British popular music for Queen Elizabeth II’s impending Silver Jubilee. 
• Moreover, she also hosted the television series “The Sound of Petula” (1972–74), and through the 1970s, made numerous guest appearances on variety, comedy, and game-show television programs.
• She made her last film appearance, in the British production “Never Never Land” in 1980. 
• Her last television appearance was acting in the 1981 French miniseries Sans Famille (An Orphan’s Tale).
• Her single, “Natural Love”, reached number 66 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and number 20 on the US country singles chart in early 1982.
• In 1983, she took on the title role in George Bernard Shaw’s “Candida”. 
• Later, her stage work includes Someone Like You in 1989 and 1990, for which she composed the score, Blood Brothers, in which she made her Broadway debut in 1993 at the Music Box Theatre, followed by the American tour; and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, appearing in both the West End and American touring productions from 1995 to 2000. 
• In the year 2004, she repeated her performance of Norma Desmond in a production at the Opera House in Cork, Ireland, which was later broadcast by the BBC. 
• A new disco remix of “Downtown”, called “Downtown ’88”, was released in 1988 registering Clark’s first UK singles chart success since 1972, making the Top 10 in the UK in December 1988.
• Next, she recorded new material regularly throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and in 1992 released “Oxygen”, a single produced by Andy Richards and written by Nik Kershaw.
• In the year 1998, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. 
• In 2012, she was installed as a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France by the French Minister of Culture. 
• She toured extensively throughout the UK in 1998 and 2002. In the year 2004, she toured Australia and New Zealand, appeared at the Hilton in Atlantic City, New Jersey; the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto, Ontario; Humphrey’s in San Diego; and the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut; and participated in a multi performer tribute to the late Peggy Lee at the Hollywood Bowl.
• In November 2006, she was the subject of a BBC Four documentary titled “Petula Clark: Blue Lady”. 
• She was the host of the March 2007 PBS fundraising special “My Music: The British Beat”.
• In the year 2005, she took part in the BBC Wales program “Coming Home”. 
• She joined Paolo Nutini to perform “Goin’ to Chicago Blues” at the Montreux Jazz Festival on 14th July 2008.
• She became president of the Hastings Musical Festival in 2010. 
• Clark, at the age of 78, performed at the Casino de Paris, a Parisian music hall in November 2011. 
• She appeared as a guest on Radio 4’s “The Reunion” in August 2012.
• After that, she released a new album “Lost in You” in January 2013. 
• She remade her famous “Downtown”, and performed a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” as well. 
• She appeared with the Midtown Men at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, performing “Downtown” on 20th June 2015. 
• Next, she appeared with the Midtown Men at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, performing “Downtown”.
• She also made a cameo appearance in the 2017 London Heathrow Airport Christmas television commercial, accompanied by her song, “I Couldn’t Live without Your Love”. 
• On 10th November 2017, an English-language album was released, “Living for Today”.
• On 20th April 2018, her French-Canadian album was released, “Vu d’ici”. 
• In March 2019, she was announced as returning to the West End stage in London for the first time in 20 years, performing in the upcoming revival of Mary Poppins as “The Bird Woman.” 
• On 25th June 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Petula Clark among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. 
• In March 2020, the United Music Foundation released “A Valentine’s Day at the Royal Albert Hall”.

Petula Clark Awards and Achievements

• Received a Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Recording for her song “Downtown”
• Best Contemporary (R&R) Vocal Performance of 1965 – Female for “I Know a Place”
• She has also been respected with the title of Commander of the British Empire for her excellence in music by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998
• Nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance in “Finian’s Rainbow”
• Received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical

Who is Petula Clark married to?

Petula Clark is a married woman. She tied a knot to her husband, Claude Wolff in 1961. By profession, Claude is a French publicist. They are the proud parents of three children; a son Patrick Wolff, and two daughters Katherine Natalie Wolff and Barbara Michelle Wolff. After meeting Claude, she was attracted immediately, and when she was told that he would work with her if she recorded in French, she agreed. Since 2012, Clark has lived for most of the year in Geneva, Switzerland; she also has a holiday chalet in the French Alps, where she likes to ski, and a pied-à-terre in London’s Chelsea. Her sexual orientation is straight. At present, the couple is enjoying their present life happily without any disturbances. 

Source: @instagram.com/petulaclarkhq

Previously, she dated Joe Henderson in 1955. Joe is a popular actor by profession. In 1962, he penned a ballad about their break-up, called “There’s Nothing More To Say”, for Clark’s LP In Other Words. 

How much is Petula Clark Net Worth?

Petula Clark is a singer, actress as well as a composer who has made a huge fortune from her professional work. Some of her blockbuster songs included Downtown, The Little Shoemaker, Romeo, Sailor” and more. Her professional career began during the Second World War as a child entertainer on BBC Radio. As of 2022, the net worth is estimated to have $10 Million. Her main source of wealth is from the music industry and acting career. Her salary is still to get disclosed yet. To date, she has been a great actress and one of the greatest singers. She is living a lavish lifestyle at present. She also appeared in print and radio ads for the Coca-Cola Corporation, television commercials for Plymouth automobiles, print and TV spots for Burlington Industries, television and print ads for Chrysler Sunbeam, and print ads for Sanderson Wallpaper in the UK.

How tall is Petula Clark?

Petula Clark is a beautiful singer who stands at the height of 5 feet or 1.55 m and her body weight consists of 121 lbs and 55 kg. She has a luring eye of Grey color and her hair color is Blonde. Her body type is average. Overall, she has got a healthy body with a charming personality and a glowing face. Her other body size is unavailable at a moment.