Clair was born Richard Jones in San Francisco, California.

[3] With Jenna McMahon, he wrote and produced the television sitcoms It's a Living, The Facts of Life, and Mama's Family.

Clair was active as an early member of the Cryonics Society of California in the 1960s.

In 1982 he contributed $20,000 to the cryonics organization Trans Time so that a husband and wife could remain cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen.

[4][5][6] Clair died on December 12, 1988, of multiple AIDS-related infections at the age of 57.