Popular stage and film comedian Claude Noel Hulbert was born in
Fulham, London in 1901, younger brother of the highly well-known
comedian, singer and comic dancer
Jack Hulbert. Like his brother, he was
educated at Cambridge and was a member of the Footlights comedy club as
an undergraduate. He began his professional acting career in supporting
roles in many of the Aldwych farces with
Tom Walls and
Ralph Lynn. He appeared in films from 1928 before making his first starring role in
Their Night Out (1933) with
Binnie Barnes. Perhaps one of his most
memorable roles at that time was the silly ass brother to Ralph Lynn in
A Cup of Kindness (1934), the starring role in
Hello, Sweetheart (1935), and starring as a
dithering diplomat in
Wolf's Clothing (1936). He played opposite
Will Hay in two popular comedies
The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941) and
My Learned Friend (1943), which were the most successful of his later vehicles. He died in a
hospital in Sydney, Australia while ashore from a world cruise with his
family.