1879-08-26 Blaenavon, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK
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 Bartholomew's 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 up-and-comers 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 1933's 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 well-known and prolific character actor of his time. Among his best-known roles was the incompetent Burgomaster in James Whale's horror classic Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He was a semi-regular 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 Clive's 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.
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The Big Parade of Comedy | Cosgrove Dabney in 'Personal Property' (arch. foot.) (uncred.) | 1964-09-02 |
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The Earl of Chicago | Mr. Redwood | 1940-01-05 |
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Foreign Correspondent | Mr. Naismith (uncredited) | 1940-08-16 |
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Congo Maisie | Horace Snell | 1940-01-19 |
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Flowing Gold | Mr. Naismith (uncredited) | 1940-08-24 |
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Pride and Prejudice | Sir William Lucas | 1940-07-26 |
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Adventure in Diamonds | Mr. MacPherson | 1940-03-08 |
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The Hound of the Baskervilles | London Cabbie John Clayton | 1939-03-24 |
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Inspector Bristol | 1939-09-01 |
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Raffles | Barraclough | 1939-11-11 |
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Bachelor Mother | Butler | 1939-06-30 |
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Mr. Moto's Last Warning | Port Commandant General (uncredited) | 1939-01-20 |
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Rose of Washington Square | Barouche Driver | 1939-05-05 |
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The Little Princess | Mr. Barrows | 1939-03-17 |
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Bulldog Drummond's Bride | Tenny | 1939-07-12 |
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Man About Town | Hotchkiss | 1939-06-29 |
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Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police | Tenny | 1939-03-29 |
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I'm from Missouri | Mr. Arthur, Duke of Cricklewood | 1939-04-06 |
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Kidnapped | Minister MacDougall | 1938-05-27 |
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Bulldog Drummond in Africa | 'Tenny' Tennison | 1938-08-05 |
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Submarine Patrol | 1938-11-25 | |
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The Last Warning | Major Barclay | 1938-12-07 |
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Gateway | Room Steward | 1938-08-05 |
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Arrest Bulldog Drummond | Tenny | 1938-11-25 |
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The First Hundred Years | Chester Blascomb | 1938-03-12 |
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Bulldog Drummond's Peril | Tenny | 1938-03-18 |
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Arsène Lupin Returns | Alf | 1938-02-25 |
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Beg, Borrow or Steal | Lord Nigel Braemer | 1937-12-03 |
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They Wanted to Marry | Stiles | 1937-02-05 |
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Ready, Willing and Able | Sir Samuel Buffington | 1937-03-06 |
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Night Must Fall | Guide | 1937-04-30 |
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Live, Love and Learn | Mr. Palmiston | 1937-10-29 |
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On the Avenue | Cabby | 1937-02-12 |
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It's Love I'm After | First Butler | 1937-10-08 |
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Danger – Love at Work | Wilbur | 1937-09-30 |
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Bulldog Drummond Escapes | "Tenny" Tennison | 1937-01-22 |
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Bulldog Drummond Comes Back | Tenny | 1937-09-24 |
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Love Under Fire | Captain Bowden | 1937-08-20 |
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Maid of Salem | Bilge | 1937-02-12 |
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Personal Property | Cosgrove Dabney | 1937-03-19 |
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The Emperor's Candlesticks | Auctioneer | 1937-07-02 |
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Bulldog Drummond's Revenge | 'Tenny' Tennison | 1937-12-16 |
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Palm Springs | Morgan | 1936-06-05 |
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Camille | Saint Gaudens (uncredited) | 1936-12-26 |
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All American Chump | Montgomery Brantley | 1936-10-16 |
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The White Angel | Dr. Smith (uncredited) | 1936-06-25 |
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The Golden Arrow | Walker | 1936-05-23 |
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All American Chump | . Montgomery Brantley | 1936-10-16 |
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Trouble for Two | King | 1936-05-29 |
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Piccadilly Jim | London Gossip Editor Bill Mechan | 1936-08-14 |
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The Charge of the Light Brigade | Sir Humphrey Harcourt | 1936-10-20 |
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Show Boat | Sir Arthur | 1936-05-17 |
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Love Before Breakfast | Yacht Captain (uncredited) | 1936-03-09 |
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Isle of Fury | Dr. Hardy | 1936-10-10 |
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Show Boat | 1936-05-17 | |
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Lloyd's of London | Magistrate | 1936-11-25 |
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Tarzan Escapes | Masters | 1936-11-06 |
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Cain and Mabel | Charles Fendwick | 1936-09-26 |
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Libeled Lady | Fishing Instructor | 1936-10-09 |
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Ticket to Paradise | Barkins | 1936-06-24 |
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The Unguarded Hour | Lord Henry Hathaway | 1936-04-10 |
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The Dark Hour | Foot, the Butler | 1936-02-17 |
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Little Lord Fauntleroy | Sir Harry Lorridaile | 1936-03-06 |
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Dracula's Daughter | Detective Sergeant Wilkes | 1936-05-11 |
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The Widow from Monte Carlo | Lord Holloway | 1935-12-19 |
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A Tale of Two Cities | Judge in 'Old Bailey' | 1935-12-25 |
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Remember Last Night? | Coroner's Photographer (uncredited) | 1935-10-28 |
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Captain Blood | Clerk of the Court | 1935-12-26 |
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3 Kids and a Queen | Coachman | 1935-10-21 |
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Gold Diggers of 1935 | Thorpe's Chauffeur Westbrook (uncredited) | 1935-03-15 |
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Kind Lady | Grammaphone Man (uncredited) | 1935-12-06 |
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The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger | Sheriff's Man (uncredited) | 1935-01-18 |
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Bride of Frankenstein | Burgomaster | 1935-04-20 |
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Stars Over Broadway | Crane | 1935-11-23 |
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The Mystery of Edwin Drood | Mayor Thomas Sapsea | 1935-02-04 |
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We're in the Money | Jevons | 1935-08-17 |
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Page Miss Glory | Monogram Shirtmaker (uncredited) | 1935-09-07 |
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A Feather in Her Hat | Higgins - Pub Proprietor (uncredited) | 1935-10-25 |
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Atlantic Adventure | McIntosh | 1935-08-25 |
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Riptide | Major Mills (uncredited) | 1934-03-29 |
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Long Lost Father | Spot Hawkins | 1934-01-19 |
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The Little Minister | Sheriff Greer | 1934-12-28 |
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The Gay Divorcee | Chief Customs Inspector (uncredited) | 1934-10-12 |
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Charlie Chan in London | Det. Sgt. Thacker | 1934-09-12 |
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One More River | Chayne | 1934-08-06 |
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Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back | London Bobbie | 1934-08-15 |
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The Poor Rich | Lord Fetherstone | 1934-02-25 |
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Father Brown, Detective | Sergeant Dawes | 1934-12-14 |
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The Invisible Man | Constable Jaffers | 1933-11-03 |
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Cheaters at Play | Steward | 1932-01-27 |