After a successful career in Melbourne, he and his wife sailed for the United States, and he made his Broadway debut in 1928[1] in an operetta, Countess Maritza.

[1] Greig worked steadily in films, again appearing with the Marx Brothers in Horse Feathers (1932), in which he played a biology professor, and was featured in the 1932 short Jitters the Butler.

Notable films in which he broke out of butler-mode were Cockeyed Cavaliers (1934), starring Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, in which Greig played the "Duke of Weskit", Uncle John to Irene Dunne's Theodora in Theodora Goes Wild (1936), and Algiers (1938), in which he was "Giraux", the wealthy and gross protector of Hedy Lamarr's character.

[5] His performances in Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve and The Palm Beach Story, in which he played a member of the "Ale & Quail Club", were among his best.

Greig died in Los Angeles on June 27, 1958, at the age of 78: he is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.