O.B. Clarence

Biography

A broad-shouldered, steel-rimmed figure whose comic timing was honed in smoky music-hall turns, Oliver Burchett Clarence left Dover College for the provinces in 1890 and never looked back. He spent seasons sharpening his craft in stock companies before joining Frank Benson’s celebrated Shakespearean touring troupe, clocking up centuries of performances in tights and doublets. When the Great War erupted, Clarence swapped scripts for a special constable’s armband; once the armistice sounded, he crossed the Atlantic and back again, soaking up classical technique on both sides of the ocean and stacking the playbills of London with Cassius, Malvolio, and a dozen other plum roles. Talking pictures lured him before the camera in 1930; for the next quarter-century he popped up in waistcoats or workmen’s caps, as kindly parsons, foggy-headed squires, or cheery codgers who always seemed one step from the allotment. He never lost the twinkle he had learned on the halls: even in a frock coat or cassock, O.B. Clarence looked ready to slip the audience a wink. At eighty he took his final bow, leaving behind a silent-screen grin and a résumetwo centuries of applause long.