31 Facts About Andy Clyde

Andrew Allan Clyde was a Scottish-born American film and television actor whose career spanned more than four decades.

Andy Clyde was the fifth of six children of theatrical actor, producer and manager John Clyde.

Andy Clyde is known for roles in two television series: the farmer Cully Wilson in CBS's Lassie and as the neighbor George MacMichael on ABC's The Real McCoys.

In 1912, Andy 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.

Andy Clyde hit upon an "old man" characterization in his short comedies, and the masquerade was immediately successful.

Andy Clyde starred in short comedies longer than any other actor.

Andy Clyde made a successful transition to sound films while in Mack Sennett's employ.

Andy Clyde objected and Sennett put the "old man" costume on character actor Irving Bacon.

Columbia Pictures launched its short subject department in 1934 and Andy Clyde was one of the first comedy stars signed by producer Jules White.

Unlike many of the Columbia short-subject comedians who indulged in broad facial and physical gestures, Andy Clyde was subtler and more economical: his comic timing was so good that he could merely lift an eyebrow, shudder slightly, or mutter "My, my, my" for humorous effect.

Andy Clyde was such an audience favorite that he continued to star in Columbia shorts through 1956.

Andy Clyde outlasted every comedian on the Columbia payroll except The Three Stooges.

Andy Clyde kept busy as a character actor in feature films; for example, he played a sad provincial postman in the Katharine Hepburn film The Little Minister and Charles Coburn's drinking buddy in The Green Years.

Andy Clyde is well remembered for his roles as a comic sidekick, usually teaming with William Boyd in the Hopalong Cassidy series, as "California Carlson", or with Whip Wilson in Monogram Pictures' low-budget western movies.

Andy Clyde worked on the Hopalong Cassidy "record readers" issued by Capitol Records in the 1950s.

Andy Clyde guest-starred in several other early series too, including The People's Choice, Soldiers of Fortune, My Little Margie, The Bob Cummings Show, and Lock Up.

Andy Clyde appeared in two children's programs: as Colonel Jack in four episodes of Circus Boy and as Homer Tubbs in four segments of ABC's western series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.

Andy Clyde subsequently played "Captain Gibbs" in the episode "Yellow Terror", with Brad Dexter in the role of John Barker.

That same year, Clyde portrayed millionaire "Andrew C Cooley" in the CBS fantasy drama The Millionaire.

From 1960 to 1962, Andy Clyde was cast as the farmer Pa McBeam in five episodes of the NBC western series The Tall Man, starring Barry Sullivan and Clu Gulager.

Andy Clyde further guest-starred in such westerns as Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, Tales of the Texas Rangers, The Restless Gun, Jefferson Drum, Buckskin, Fury, Shotgun Slade, The Man from Blackhawk, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.

On Lassie, Andy Clyde played the eccentric farmer and nature lover, Cully Wilson, the friend to Timmy Martin, portrayed by child actor Jon Provost, in much the same fashion as Burt Mustin was cast as Gus the fireman for Jerry Mathers in Leave It to Beaver.

Andy Clyde played friendly, usually sincere neighbor George MacMichael to Brennan's devious "Grandpa Amos McCoy".

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".

Andy Clyde portrayed Poney Thompson in "Snakebite" in 1958 and Henry Squires in "Durham Bull" in 1962 on CBS's long-running western series Gunsmoke.

On September 23,1932, Andy Clyde married Elsie Maud Tarron, a former member of the Sennett Bathing Beauties, in Ontario in San Bernardino County, California.

Jules White recalled that Andy Clyde became a father in middle age, and was devastated when his son, John Allan Andy Clyde, died of meningitis at age nine.

Andy Clyde was close friends with Ben Turpin, serving as the witness at Turpin's second marriage and a pallbearer at his funeral.

Andy Clyde became a naturalized United States citizen on September 24,1943.

Andy Clyde's remains are interred at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

On February 8,1960, Andy Clyde received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6758 Hollywood Boulevard, for his contribution to the motion pictures industry.