Clyde Cook (actor)

Career in Australia

He was born Clyde Wilfred Cook, to John and Annie Cook, at Hamilton, near Port Macquarie, Australia. Cook moved with his family to Sydney when he was 6. He was already a skilled acrobat and dancer before he first appeared on stage in 1901 and within a few years he had developed a successful reputation as an all-round comic entertainer. In 1906, J. C. Williamson placed Cook under contract and he worked with the company until about 1911, when he departed for the United Kingdom, determined to try his luck in the London music hall scene. After some difficulty he succeeded and subsequently also worked at the Folies Bergere for 14 weeks. He returned to Australia in 1916.

Although he appears to have expressed a desire to join up during the First World War, unspecified "physical defects" meant he was unable to join the AIF. Instead he devoted much time to fund-raising and entertaining soldiers. His trademark moustache also appeared for the first time during Australian performances in 1917. In 1918 he appeared in his first film, His Only Chance a J. C. Williamson's production made to support Red Cross fund-raising. Then in 1919, in the height of the spanish flu epidemic, Cook brought an action against J. C. Williamsons over the impact on performers contacts caused by their closure of theatres. The action failed. Soon after Cook left Australia for the United States.

Move to the United States

Appearing at the New York Hippodrome from mid 1919 until early 1920, he was reportedly immediately a success - often styled as the "Inja Rubber Idiot" in his early US performances. During this season he was seen by film producer William Fox, who signed him for a series of comedy shorts to be made in Hollywood. He arrived there in 1920, making a string of comedies. In 1925 he was signed by Hal Roach and in 1927 by Warner Brothers. His output was significant through the 1920s and he worked with many of the other well known silent comedians who had transitioned from vaudeville. He was popular and well enough known to headline many of the comedies. He made a transition to supporting character roles in sound films, often playing cockney types in later life, as in the Bulldog Drummond film series, Mysterious Mr. Moto and as a London newspaper vendor in "A Ghost for Scotland Yard", a 1953 episode of The Adventures of Superman.

Cook married actress Alice née Draper in 1925 and a child, Julia, was born of the union. However, the marriage was not a success and they divorced acrimoniously in 1938. In 1948 Cook returned to Australia to make contact with his older brother Tom, with whom he had had no contact for twelve years.

His final film was a part in the John Ford film Donovan's Reef, made in 1963.

Cook died on 13 August 1984, at his home in Santa Barbara.