Andy Clyde
Andy Clyde | |
---|---|
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale , California | |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1921–1966 |
Spouse |
Elsie Maud Tarron
(m. 1932) |
Children | 1 |
Andrew Allan Clyde (March 25, 1892 – May 18, 1967), was a Scottish-born American film and television actor whose career spanned some 45 years. In 1921 he broke into silent films as a Mack Sennett comic, debuting in On a Summer Day. He was the fifth of six children of theatrical actor, producer and manager John Clyde.[1] Clyde's brother David and his sister Jean also became screen actors.[2][3]
Clyde may be best known for his work as California Carlson in the
.Acting career
Theatre and film
At age 19, he toured Scotland with Durward Lely & Company, playing Connor Martin in the romantic Irish musical costume drama The Wearin’ o’ the Green.[4][5][6] In 1912,[7] Clyde first came to the United States on tour in the Graham Moffat Players, playing the part of Bob Dewar in a vaudeville comedy sketch depicting tenement life in Glasgow called The Concealed Bed.[8][9][10][11] Years later, at the invitation of his close friend James Finlayson, he returned to the United States in 1920 to join producer Mack Sennett's roster of comedians.[12]
Clyde's mastery of makeup allowed him tremendous versatility; he could play everything from grubby young
He made a successful transition to sound films while in Mack Sennett's employ. In 1932, when the Sennett studio was facing financial problems, Sennett cut Clyde's salary. Clyde objected and left the studio. Sennett then put the "old man" costume on character actor Irving Bacon. Audiences saw through the masquerade, and Sennett abandoned the character. Educational Pictures, Sennett's distributor, took over the Andy Clyde series, which continued for two more years.
Clyde also kept busy as a character actor in feature films. He almost always appeared as a supporting actor: for example, he played a sad provincial constable in the Katharine Hepburn film The Little Minister and Charles Coburn's drinking buddy in The Green Years. He did play a couple of leads for low-budget, independent producers: the comedy Red Lights Ahead (1935) and the western Sundown Riders (1944).
By the 1940s, Clyde had been gravitating toward outdoor and western adventures. Clyde is well remembered for his roles as a comic sidekick. He was most often associated with William Boyd in the Hopalong Cassidy series, as "California Carlson" (a role he also played in the Hopalong Cassidy radio program. He stayed with the Cassidy feature films until the series lapsed in 1948. Clyde also worked on the Hopalong Cassidy "record readers" issued by Capitol Records in the 1950s.[14] Clyde's home studio, Columbia, cast Clyde prominently in feature-length musical westerns of the mid-1940s.
In 1949 Clyde became the comic sidekick to Monogram Pictures' newest cowboy star Whip Wilson. They worked together through 1951. In 1955 Clyde signed with Republic Pictures for two features, a Judy Canova comedy and a John Payne western.
Through the years Andy Clyde was still starring in his two-reel comedies for Columbia, where he had been making six shorts annually. This was modified in 1942 to four per year, then in 1945 to three per year, and finally in 1947 to two per year, which became Clyde's standard schedule for the next nine years. These reductions were not due to any loss in Clyde's popularity; gradual budget cuts forced the studio to make fewer short subjects. From the mid-1940s, the studio was able to produce lower-budgeted remakes, editing older scenes into the new ones. You Were Never Uglier (1944), for example, was remade in 1952 as Hooked and Rooked, with Andy Clyde and Emmett Lynn repeating their roles in the new sequences, but with new female co-stars replacing the vintage-1944 players. Clyde was such an audience favorite that he continued to star in Columbia shorts through 1956, when his last theatrical film was released (the short subject Pardon My Nightshirt). With his history of 79 Columbia shorts, he outlasted every comedian on the Columbia payroll except The Three Stooges.[15]
Television career
Clyde began working in the new TV industry in 1952, making guest appearances in established series. He appeared in
He appeared in two children's programs: as Colonel Jack in four episodes of
In 1959, Clyde portrayed millionaire "Andrew C. Cooley" in the CBS fantasy drama The Millionaire. In 1961, on CBS's The Andy Griffith Show, Clyde played Frank Myers, an eccentric old man whom the town tries to evict in the episode "Mayberry Goes Bankrupt". In 1964, Clyde reunited with Walter Brennan for one episode of the new ABC series, The Tycoon.
In 1962–1963, Clyde portrayed Dr. Parkinson in three episodes of the NBC medical drama Dr. Kildare, starring Richard Chamberlain.
Clyde often worked in TV westerns. In
As series regular or semi-regular
Andy Clyde worked steadily in four TV series. It is for these series that he is best known among TV fans. In 1957 he became a recurring cast member of The Real McCoys as George MacMichael, the friendly neighbor of "Grandpa Amos McCoy" (Walter Brennan). Clyde worked well opposite Brennan, with the devious Amos usually entangling George in his latest ideas between games of checkers.
In 1959, concurrently with the McCoys series, Clyde joined the Lassie series as the eccentric farmer and nature lover Cully Wilson, the friend to Timmy Martin, portrayed by child actor Jon Provost. After the Martin family was written out of the series, Cully became the dog's temporary guardian in several episodes before the series shifted to a forest-ranger format.
From 1960 to 1962, Clyde was cast as the farmer Pa McBeam in five episodes of the
In 1964-65 Clyde appeared as Grandpa Jim Anderson in five episodes of the ABC military comedy
Personal life
On September 23, 1932, Clyde married Elsie Maud Tarron, a former member of the Sennett Bathing Beauties,[12] in Ontario in San Bernardino County, California. Jules White recalled that Clyde became a father in middle age, and was devastated when his son, John Allan Clyde, died of meningitis at age nine.[16]
Clyde was close friends with Ben Turpin, serving as the witness at Turpin's second marriage[17] and a pallbearer at his funeral.[18]
He became a
Clyde continued to perform on television until his death of natural causes on May 18, 1967.
Legacy
On February 8, 1960, Clyde received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6758 Hollywood Boulevard, for his contribution to the motion pictures industry.[21][22]
Selected filmography
- A Small Town Idol (1921) as Minor role (uncredited)
- Bow-Wow (1922) as The City Slicker
- Picking Peaches as Near-sighted Customer
- The Girl from Everywhere (1927) as Publicity Man
- The Branded Man (1928) as Jenkins
- The Good-Bye Kiss (1928) as The Grandfather
- Should a Girl Marry? (1928) as Harry
- Ships of the Night (1928) as Alec
- Blindfold (1928) as Funeral
- Midnight Daddies (1930) as Wilbur Louder
- Million Dollar Legs (1932) as Major-Domo
- The Little Minister (1934) as Wearyworld the policeman
- Romance in Manhattan (1935) as Liquor Store Owner (uncredited)
- Annie Oakley (1935) as James MacIvor
- McFadden's Flats (1935) as Jock McTavish
- Village Tale (1935) as Storekeeper
- The Bishop Misbehaves (1935) (scenes deleted)
- Yellow Dust (1936) as Silas 'Solitaire' Carter
- Straight from the Shoulder (1936) as J. M. Pyne
- Two in a Crowd (1936) as Jonesy
- Red Lights Ahead (1936) as Grandpa Hawkins
- The Barrier (1937) 'No-Creek' Lee
- It's a Wonderful World (1939) as 'Gimpy' Wilson
- Bad Lands (1939) as Cluff
- Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) as Stage Driver
- Cherokee Strip (1940) as Tex Crawford
- Three Men from Texas (1940) as California Carlson
- Doomed Caravan (1941) as California Jack
- In Old Colorado (1941) as California Carlson
- Border Vigilantes (1941) as California Carlson
- Pirates on Horseback (1941) as California Carlson
- Wide Open Town (1941) as California Carlson
- Stick to Your Guns (1941) as California Carlson
- Riders of the Timberline (1941) as California Carlson
- Twilight on the Trail (1941) as California Carlson
- Outlaws of the Desert (1941) as California Carlson
- Secret of the Wastelands (1941) as California Carlson
- This Above All (1942) as Fireman (uncredited)
- Undercover Man (1942) as California Carlson
- Lost Canyon (1942) as California Carlson
- Hoppy Serves a Writ (1943) as California Carlson
- Border Patrol (1943) as California Carlson
- The Leather Burners (1943) as California Carlson
- Colt Comrades (1943) as California Carlson
- Bar 20 (1943) as California Carlson
- False Colors (1943) as California Carlson
- Riders of the Deadline (1943) as California Carlson
- Texas Masquerade (1944) as California Carlson
- Lumberjack (1944) as California Carlson
- Mystery Man (1944) as California Carlson
- Forty Thieves (1944) as Deputy California Carlson
- Sundown Riders (1944) as Andy
- Roughly Speaking (1945) as Matt (uncredited)
- Song of the Prairie (1945) as Uncle And Tyler
- Throw a Saddle on a Star (1946) as Pop Walker
- The Green Years (1946) as Saddler Boag
- That Texas Jamboree (1946) as Andy Warren
- Plainsman and the Lady (1946) as Durango
- The Devil's Playground as California Carlson
- Unexpected Guest (1947) as California Carlson
- Dangerous Venture (1947) as California Carlson
- The Marauders (1947) as California Carlson
- Hoppy's Holiday (1947) as California Carlson
- Fool's Gold (1947) as California Carlson
- Silent Conflict (1948) as California Carlson
- The Dead Don't Dream (1948) as California Carlson
- Sinister Journey (1948) as California Carlson
- Borrowed Trouble (1948) as California Carlson
- False Paradise (1948) as California Carlson
- Strange Gamble (1948) as California Carlson
- Crashing Thru (1949) as Winks Winkle
- Shadows of the West (1949) as Winks Grayson
- Big Jack (1949) as Putt Cleghorn (uncredited)
- Haunted Trails (1949) as Trigger Winks
- Riders of the Dust (1949) as Winks Holiday
- Range Land (1949) as Winks
- Fence Riders (1950) as Winks McGee
- Gunslingers (1950) as Winks McGee
- Arizona Territory (1950) as Marshal Luke Watson
- Silver Raiders (1950) as Sheriff J. Quincy Jones
- Cherokee Rising (1950) as Deputy Marshal Jake Jones
- Outlaws of Texas (1950) as U.S. Marshal Hungry Rogers
- Abilene Trail (1951) as Sagebrush Charlie
- Carolina Cannonball (1955) as Grandpa Rutherford
- The Road to Denver (1955) as Whipsaw Ellis
References
- ^ John Clyde: Scotland's first film star, Helensburgh Heritage. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ David Clyde: Stage and film actor, Helensburgh Heritage. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ Jean Clyde: Stage actress, Helensburgh Heritage. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ "DURWARD LELY AT BATHGATE". West Lothian Courier. August 18, 1911. p. 4.
- ^ "AUCHTERARDER". Strathearn Herald. August 19, 1911. p. 6.
- ^ "MARKINCH". Fifeshire Advertiser. February 17, 1912. p. 10.
- ^ "New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JJY3-W2K : 16 August 2019), Andrew A. Clyde, 1912.
- ^ "THE VAUDEVILLE WEEK IN FRISCO: Orpheum, San Francisco, July 1". The Billboard. July 13, 1912. p. 12.
- ^ "NEW VAUDEVILLE ACTS: Graham Moffat's Players, in 'The Concealed Bed', Keith's Union Square, Evening, Oct. 21". The New York Clipper. October 26, 1912. p. 14.
- ^ "VAUDEVILLE AND BURLESQUE NEWS: Keith's Union Square, New York, Oct. 24". The Billboard. November 2, 1912. p. 10.
- ^ "AMUSEMENTS: Temple Theater". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. February 11, 1913.
- ^ a b Andy Clyde: Film star, Helensburgh Heritage. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ ISBN 0-89950-181-8
- ^ Hall, Roger. "Alan Livingston and The Capitol Record Readers". Archived from the original on August 31, 2011. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
- ^ Okuda and Watz, p. 69.
- ISBN 1-882766-00-8.
- ^ "California, County Marriages, 1850–1952, Bernard Turpin and Babette Dietz, 08 Jul 1926". FamilySearch. Los Angeles, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 2,074,649. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "Veterans of Films Honor Ben Turpin". Prescott Evening Courier. July 4, 1940. Retrieved November 23, 2010.
- ^ "California, Southern District Court (Central) Naturalization Index, 1915–1976, Andrew Allan Clyde, 1943". FamilySearch. Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States, National Archives and Records Service, Los Angeles Branch, Laguna Niguel; FHL microfilm 1,562,035. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 25047-25048). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
- ^ "Andy Clyde | Hollywood Walk of Fame". www.walkoffame.com. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
- ^ "Andy Clyde". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 18, 2016.