Claude Hulbert
Claude Noel Hulbert (25 December 1900 – 23 January 1964) was a British comic actor. He was the younger brother of Jack Hulbert. Like his brother, he was Cambridge educated and was a member of the Footlights comedy club as an undergraduate.
Hulbert began his professional career on the English stage. His first theatrical credit was in the London revue Fantasia in 1921. In 1924, he was quite successful in the George Grossmith-Guy Bolton musical comedy Primrose, which led to a string of musical comedy roles for him from 1925 to the 1930s, including Sunny, Oh Kay, Song of the Sea and Follow a Star. Hulbert also was a hit on radio, thanks to his spontaneous manner of delivery, along with his nervous excitability and hilarious stuttering. In 1939, he returned to the London stage in the farce, Worth a Million. Subsequently he was seen in Cole Porter's Panama Hattie (1943) and as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz (1946), In the 1950s, he appeared in numerous farces and in repertory theatre. In 1959, he made quite a splash as Lord Plynne in Frederick Lonsdale's Let Them Eat Cake