As an adult, to avoid confusion with established star Robert Young, he took his mother's maiden name, Clifton, as his screen name.

Notable credits include Nora Prentiss, Pursued, Possessed, Dark Passage, and Blood on the Moon.

He played a variety of roles: a craven mobster in So You Want to Be a Detective, a department-store clerk in So You're Going on Vacation, and memorably as "Homer," Joe's brash, know-it-all office colleague in several McDoakes reels.

One of Young's last films was the Roy Rogers western Trail of Robin Hood (1950), in which he played a sneering villain.

Young died on September 10, 1951, in a hotel fire that started when he fell asleep while smoking.