O.B. Clarence

Stocky, bespectacled English character actor, whose career began in the music halls. Educated at Dover College, Oliver Burchett Clarence acted in repertory theatre from 1890. He then worked as a member of actor-manager 'Frank Benson' (qv)'s troupe for a number of years. During the First World War, he served as a special constable. After the war, Clarence undertook extensive classical training in Britain and America and subsequently accumulated a long list of credits on London's Shakespearean stage. A regular in British films from 1930, he was generally well-cast in period drama or comedy, often as cloth-capped working class types, priests or likable old dodderers. 'O.B. Clarence' (qv) retired from acting at the age of eighty.::I.S.Mowis