Laddie Cliff (born Clifford Albyn Perry; 3 September 1891 – 8 December 1937) was a British dancer, choreographer, actor, producer, writer, and director of comedy, musical theatre and film.

Born Clifford Albyn Perry on 3 September 1891 in Bristol, Laddie Cliff first toured in British, Australian, and American variety.

[3] A review in the New York Dramatic Mirror of his 2 January performance praised his talent and anticipated his popularity: he was suffering from hoarseness and had to cut out some of his songs.

[4] On the 5th, the New York Daily Tribune reported that, at the Alhambra, "Laddie Cliff, the English boy performer, who was cordially received at the Colonial last week, will be on the bill.

On 30 Jan 1909, the Montreal Gazette anticipated Laddie Cliff's "clever offering": "This little fellow is accounted one of the best English eccentric dancers of the stage.

[7] In early June he headlined at the Orpheum in Spokane, Washington and was reviewed as superior, original and appealing: As a monologist, Laddie Cliff .

[10] A review in San Francisco Call on 28 June 1909 hails him as a 17-year-old with "eloquent legs", identifying him as "the star of the show", whose "terpsichorean art wins much applause from Play Goers"[11] His skill and individuality were highlighted: Master Laddie Cliff won the honors....His songs and his dances are hot from the pavements of London.

He is grotesque as a dancer, unusual as a singer and quite inimitable in all ways.Laddie Cliff was named by Martin Beck in the San Francisco Call of 11 September 1909 as one of the "stars which will twinkle over the Orpheum Circuit", specially scouted in Europe for the 1910-11 season.

[12] In May 1910 he was exhausted enough to need a break back in England, as Variety reports from Chicago on 4 May: "Laddie Cliff will sail for his English home to obtain a rest, following the boy's appearance on the opening bill of Dave Robinson's Brighton Theatre,[13] week May 16.

[16] By around 1913 Cliff had become rich enough to buy property in New York State,[17] and a couple of years later he married a fellow vaudeville dancer, Maybelle (also spelled Mabel and Maybell) Parker.

On Saturday 11th they were flagged among "Stage and Screen Players to Be Seen Next Week" in The Evening World as "Laddie Cliff...comedian, assisted by Maybelle Parker".

[19] The New York Clipper reviewed them on Saturday 18th:LADDIE CLIFF, assisted by MAYBELLE PARKER, captured the hit of the first portion of the program.

— Announcement was made today of the sale of the farm of Laddie Cliff, vaudeville Star, who is shortly to sail for England to join the British army aviation corps.

[23] Cliff's acclaimed "extraordinary dancing"[2] as a bespectacled comic in the London musical Three Little Widows resulted in his being engaged to choreograph André Charlot's The Wild Geese[2] and put him on the road to stardom.

The event inspired a song.BURGLARY INSPIRES SONGThieves who broke into the St John's Wood (London) home of Mr. Laddie Cliff, who is playing in "So This Is Love" at the Winter Garden Theatre, inspired a new song for one of the actor's productions.It is entitled "Don't leave your jemmy on the door," for that is what the thieves did.Mr Cliff was at the theatre, and the burglary was discovered by Miss Phyllis Monkman, his wife, who found the door splintered opened and a jemmy nearby.The thieves had ransacked the house and stolen a gold cigarette case inscribed from "David to Laddie," a blue enamelled dress watch inscribed "To Laddie from his Friar friends: Aug, 4, 1916,"[33] and other property, including a fur coat.

He travelled to Switzerland in October, and was admitted to the British Sanatorium in Crans-Montana suffering from pleurisy and pneumonia, where he died on 8 December, aged 46, with his wife Phyllis Monkman by his side.