Norm Clarke

Norm Clarke (July 8, 1942 – March 20, 2025) was an American sportswriter and reporter, later known for his gossip column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which ran from 1999 to 2016.

Early life Clarke was born on July 8, 1942, in Terry, Montana. He had two brothers and a sister. Their father died of cancer as a sportswriter for the Terry Tribune, a weekly newspaper. In 2014, Clarke revisited the incident and wrote his account of interviewing the 18-year-old bus boy, Walter Bailey, who interrupted the comedians on stage to try to warn the nearly 1,300 people in the room about the fire. As authorities were controlling the scene in the immediate aftermath, Clark was the first to be able to interview Bailey. He eventually transferred to San Diego, California and then Los Angeles, where he helped coordinate the AP's coverage of the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Clarke next went to Denver's Rocky Mountain News to work as a sportswriter, eventually covering the Major League Baseball team the Colorado Rockies. During the 1989 World Series held in San Francisco, Clarke was in the stadium as the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the San Francisco Bay Area and the Stadium. In 1996, he switched to writing a lifestyle column for the paper.

Las Vegas Review-Journal In 1999, Clarke wound up meeting the publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal while visiting one of his brothers, who worked as a photographer for the newspaper. The discussion led to Clarke joining the newspaper as its celebrity gossip columnist. His column, eventually known as "Vegas Confidential," The column ran until July 28, 2016, when health challenges required additional medication, producing side effects which interfered with his work. Within a year, he had come out of retirement and joined the Vegas Stats & Information Network as a contributing columnist.

Personal life and death Clarke was a resident of Las Vegas from 1999 and onward. On October 12, 2012, at the Smith Center, Clarke married Cara Roberts,

In 2001, Clarke was diagnosed with prostate cancer and continued to battle it for more than two decades. He died on March 20, 2025, at the age of 82.

Clarke hoped to be remembered as a reporter rather than a gossip columnist, noting his tenure with the AP. He was survived by his wife and siblings.