Acting
90
Man
26 Aug 1879
6 Jun 1940 (60)
Blaenavon, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK
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 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.
Year | Movie / TV show / Other | Role |
---|---|---|
1964 | The Big Parade of Comedy | Cosgrove Dabney in 'Personal Property' (arch. foot.) (uncred.) |
1940 | Foreign Correspondent | Mr. Naismith (uncredited) |
1940 | Pride and Prejudice | Sir William Lucas |
1940 | Flowing Gold | Mr. Naismith (uncredited) |
1940 | Congo Maisie | Horace Snell |
1940 | The Earl of Chicago | Mr. Redwood |
1940 | Adventure in Diamonds | Mr. MacPherson |
1939 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | London Cabbie John Clayton |
1939 | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Inspector Bristol |
1939 | The Little Princess | Mr. Barrows |
1939 | Bachelor Mother | Butler |
1939 | Mr. Moto's Last Warning | Port Commandant General (uncredited) |
1939 | Raffles | Barraclough |
1939 | Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police | Tenny |
1939 | Bulldog Drummond's Bride | Tenny |
1939 | Rose of Washington Square | Barouche Driver |
1939 | Man About Town | Hotchkiss |
1939 | I'm from Missouri | Mr. Arthur, Duke of Cricklewood |
1938 | Bulldog Drummond's Peril | Tenny |
1938 | Arrest Bulldog Drummond | Tenny |
1938 | Bulldog Drummond in Africa | 'Tenny' Tennison |
1938 | Arsène Lupin Returns | Alf |
1938 | Submarine Patrol | |
1938 | Gateway | Room Steward |
1938 | Kidnapped | Minister MacDougall |
1938 | The First Hundred Years | Chester Blascomb |
1938 | The Last Warning | Major Barclay |
1937 | Night Must Fall | Guide |
1937 | It's Love I'm After | First Butler |
1937 | Bulldog Drummond Escapes | "Tenny" Tennison |
1937 | Bulldog Drummond Comes Back | Tenny |
1937 | Bulldog Drummond's Revenge | 'Tenny' Tennison |
1937 | Personal Property | Cosgrove Dabney |
1937 | The Emperor's Candlesticks | Auctioneer |
1937 | Maid of Salem | Bilge |
1937 | Live, Love and Learn | Mr. Palmiston |
1937 | Ready, Willing and Able | Sir Samuel Buffington |
1937 | They Wanted to Marry | Stiles |
1937 | On the Avenue | Cabby |
1937 | Danger – Love at Work | Wilbur |
1937 | Beg, Borrow or Steal | Lord Nigel Braemer |
1937 | Love Under Fire | Captain Bowden |
1936 | Dracula's Daughter | Detective Sergeant Wilkes |
1936 | Camille | Saint Gaudens (uncredited) |
1936 | Libeled Lady | Fishing Instructor |
1936 | Tarzan Escapes | Masters |
1936 | The Charge of the Light Brigade | Sir Humphrey Harcourt |
1936 | Little Lord Fauntleroy | Sir Harry Lorridaile |
1936 | Show Boat | |
1936 | Show Boat | Sir Arthur |
1936 | Lloyd's of London | Magistrate |
1936 | Love Before Breakfast | Yacht Captain (uncredited) |
1936 | Isle of Fury | Dr. Hardy |
1936 | Cain and Mabel | Charles Fendwick |
1936 | The Golden Arrow | Walker |
1936 | The Dark Hour | Foot, the Butler |
1936 | All American Chump | . Montgomery Brantley |
1936 | All American Chump | Montgomery Brantley |
1936 | Trouble for Two | King |
1936 | The Unguarded Hour | Lord Henry Hathaway |
1936 | The White Angel | Dr. Smith (uncredited) |
1936 | Piccadilly Jim | London Gossip Editor Bill Mechan |
1936 | Ticket to Paradise | Barkins |
1936 | Palm Springs | Morgan |
1935 | Bride of Frankenstein | Burgomaster |
1935 | Captain Blood | Clerk of the Court |
1935 | David Copperfield | Sheriff's Man (uncredited) |
1935 | A Tale of Two Cities | Judge in 'Old Bailey' |
1935 | Gold Diggers of 1935 | Thorpe's Chauffeur Westbrook (uncredited) |
1935 | Kind Lady | Grammaphone Man (uncredited) |
1935 | The Mystery of Edwin Drood | Mayor Thomas Sapsea |
1935 | Page Miss Glory | Monogram Shirtmaker (uncredited) |
1935 | We're in the Money | Jevons |
1935 | Stars Over Broadway | Crane |
1935 | Remember Last Night? | Coroner's Photographer (uncredited) |
1935 | A Feather in Her Hat | Higgins - Pub Proprietor (uncredited) |
1935 | The Widow from Monte Carlo | Lord Holloway |
1935 | Atlantic Adventure | McIntosh |
1935 | 3 Kids and a Queen | Coachman |
1934 | The Gay Divorcee | Chief Customs Inspector (uncredited) |
1934 | Charlie Chan in London | Det. Sgt. Thacker |
1934 | The Little Minister | Sheriff Greer |
1934 | Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back | London Bobbie |
1934 | Long Lost Father | Spot Hawkins |
1934 | One More River | Chayne |
1934 | Riptide | Major Mills (uncredited) |
1934 | Father Brown, Detective | Sergeant Dawes |
1934 | The Poor Rich | Lord Fetherstone |
1933 | The Invisible Man | Constable Jaffers |
1932 | Cheaters at Play | Steward |