O.B. Clarence Biography

A virile romantic lead in his turn-of-the-century stage performances, British actor O. B. Clarence settled for what one writer characterized as "benevolent, doddering" roles in films. On screen from 1914, Clarence played dozens of benign old duffers, usually wearing a working-class cloth cap. He also showed up in clerical roles, playing vicars and ministers in such productions as Pygmalion (1937) and Uncle Silas (1947). The most celebrated of his 1940s film assignments was his brief turn as The Aged Parent in Great Expectations (1946). One of O. B. Clarence's least characteristic "appearances" was in a film in which he never appeared on screen: in Dead Eyes of London (1940), Clarence's voice was heard whenever villain Bela Lugosi adopted the disguise of the kindly operator of a home for the blind. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi