E. E. Clive

Edward Erskholme Clive was a Welsh stage actor and director who had a prolific acting career in Britain and America He also played numerous supporting roles in Hollywood movies between 1933 and his death E E Clive was born on 28 August 1879 in Blaenavon in Monmouthshire Clive studied for a medical career and had completed four years of medical studies at St Bartholomews Hospital before switching his focus to acting at age 22 Touring the provinces for a decade Clive became an expert at virtually every sort of regional dialect in the British Isles He moved to the US in 1912 where after working in the Orpheum vaudeville circuit he set up his own stock company in Boston By the 1920s his company was operating in Hollywood among his repertory players were such upandcomers as Rosalind Russell He also worked at the Broadway in several plays E E Clive made his film debut as a village police constable in 1933s The Invisible Man with Claude Rains then spent the next seven years showing up in wry supporting and bit parts where he often portrayed comical versions of English stereotypes He often played butlers reporters aristocrats shopkeepers and cabbies during his short film career Though his roles were often small Clive was a wellknown and prolific character actor of his time Among his bestknown roles was the incompetent Burgomaster in James Whales horror classic Bride of Frankenstein 1935 He was a semiregular as Tenny the Butler in Paramount Pictures Bulldog Drummond B series starring John Howard he also played butlers in other movies like Bachelor Mother with David Niven and Ginger Rogers In 1939 Clive appeared in The Little Princess as the lawyer Mr Barrows and the first two entries of the classic Sherlock Holmes series starring Basil Rathbone One of Clives last roles was Sir William Lucas in the 1940 literature adaption Pride and Prejudice 1940 with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson E E Clive died on 6 June 1940 of a heart ailment in his Hollywood home He was survived by his wife Eleanor and their child Clive was a member of the Euclid lodge of Freemasons in Boston