Fred Clifton

Clifton was born in Dudley, Worcestershire (now West Midlands), the oldest of four children of Frederick Greene, a hairdresser and later a music seller, and his wife Eliza (nee Husler).

[2] In 1872, Richard D'Oyly Carte was representing Brunelli as her theatrical agent when she was engaged in the title role of the first English production of The Black Crook in London's Alhambra Theatre in 1872.

[4] He then created the role of the Sergeant of Police at the same theatre, beginning on December 31, 1879, in the original production of The Pirates of Penzance and later on tour with Carte's First American Company until June 1880.

[7] Clifton apparently returned to the US by the middle of the decade, as an actor of that name played the butler in Twins at the Standard Theatre in New York in May 1885.

[8] He appeared with Lillian Russell and fellow ex-D'Oyly Carte principals J. H. Ryley and Alice Barnett in Billee Taylor at New York's Casino Theatre in July 1885[9] and with Harry Paulton and company in the comic opera Paola by Edward Jakobowski, with a libretto by Paulton and Tedde at the Grand Opera House, Philadelphia, in 1889.