A native of Dublin,[2] Clinch gave his first professional stage performances in February 1768 when, billed as "A Young Gentleman", he appeared at the Crow Street Theatre in Henry Mossop's productions of Thomas Otway's The Orphan and Venice Preserved as, respectively, Castalio and Jaffier.
[3] He was considered well suited to the roles of such tragic lovers, "his figure being tall, well-made and pleasing, his voice powerful and melodious, and his manner compounded of the modest and agreeable".
[5] In 1769 he was cast by Mossop in Thomas King’s Wit's Last Stand and Charles Johnson's The Country Lasses[6] and demonstrated a talent for comedy that sprang from his own light-hearted nature, later recalled by the actor Michael Kelly's characterisation of him as "the facetious Larry Clinch".
[8] When Mossop's financial difficulties resulted in disbandment of his company, Clinch was engaged by Thomas Dawson and Robert Mahon who had undertaken management of Dublin's Capel Street Theatre.
[10] On that occasion he was criticised for insufficient attention to "the dignity of blank verse" but, subject to correcting such deficiency, was forecast to be "a very considerable acquisition to the theatrical world".
[11] That he was "a young actor well worthy the patronage of the public" was acknowledged when, in March 1773, he played Alberto in the first production of John Home's tragedy Alonzo,[12] but shortly afterwards he fell out with Garrick.
[13][note 1] He made several appearances at the Theatre Royal in King Street, Bristol, in August and September 1773, including a benefit performance in the title-role in Arthur Murphy's Alzuma.
[14] Returning to Ireland, he acted at Cork and Limerick in 1774,[15] but then resumed his career in London where he joined Richard Brinsley Sheridan's company at Covent Garden.
[16] In the autumn of 1774 his portrayal of Alexander the Great was considered a qualified improvement on his appearance in the part two years earlier ("he gave the passion utterance more naturally than before but he was extremely deficient in the tender scenes").
However, his later performances as Richmond in Shakespeare's Richard III and as Pharamond in Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster were commended and he was thought to have "caught the manner" (if not the "persuasive delivery") of Spranger Barry,[17] with whom he had appeared in Murphy's The Grecian Daughter somewhat earlier.
[21] Clinch's tour de force as Lucius O'Trigger "established his reputation"[22] but, after his performance in the role at Covent Garden, there seems to be no record of his again playing the part.
In May 1779, at a command performance of The Fair Penitent for the Irish Viceroy, the Earl of Buckinghamshire, the majority of Ryder's cast refused to proceed with the play unless an immediate instalment of their wage arrears was forthcoming.
On successive nights in March he appeared as Colonel Briton in Susanna Centlivre's The Wonder: A Woman keeps a Secret!, as Young Bevil in Richard Steele's The Conscious Lovers, and as Athelwold in the dramatic musical Elfrida.
[40] When Sarah Siddons visited the theatre in July–August he played opposite her in Centlivre's The Gamester, Congreve's The Mourning Bride, Nicholas Rowe's Jane Shore, and Otway's Venice Preserved.