June Clyde was a vaudeville star at age seven, billed under her family name as "Baby Tetrazini." After a thriving stage career, Clyde made her talking-picture debut in RKO's Tanned Legs (1929). While she had a pleasing personality and above-average dancing and singing skills, she was seldom seen to best advantage in her Hollywood films, playing second (or even third) fiddle to such bombastic performers as Wheeler and Woolsey (The Cuckoos 1930) and Jimmy Durante (Hollywood Party 1934). Upon her marriage to British director Thornton Freeland, Clyde relocated to England, where she showed up in such films as the 1935 Richard Tauber vehicle Forbidden Music and in many West End stage productions. She periodically returned to Hollywood in the 1940s, where once again she was consigned to secondary roles. Back in England in the late 1940s, June Clyde remained there until her death at age 77; her last film was the British-produced, Hollywood-financed The Story of Esther Costello (1957).
by Hal Erickson
biography
