Biography
Clinton Jencks (1918–2005) was an American actor and labour union organiser. He played the role of Frank Barnes, a character based closely on himself, in the 1954 independent film Salt of the Earth, which dramatised a real strike by zinc miners in New Mexico. His first wife, Virginia Jencks, appeared in the film as Ruth Barnes.
Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Jencks served in the US Army Air Forces in the Pacific during the Second World War. He later became an organiser for the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers and led a 15-month strike against the Empire Zinc Company beginning in 1950. After the film’s production he was convicted of violating the Taft-Hartley Act’s non-communist affidavit requirement; the conviction was subsequently overturned. He later obtained a doctorate in economics and taught at San Diego State University from 1964 until his retirement in 1988. He also appeared as himself in the 1982 documentary A Crime to Fit the Punishment.
