Actor, Author. He was a British lyricist, screenwriter and actor. He was born in Birmingham, and appeared in 22 silent films, but retired as an actor with the coming of sound, after which he contributed to the screenplays of 38 films, the best-known of which are "Brewster's Millions" in 1935 and "The Lambeth Walk" in 1939. He is, however, remembered chiefly as the co-author with Greatrex Newman of the lyrics for the song "If You were the Only Girl in the World and I were the Only Boy." Nat D. Ayer wrote the music for the popular tune. First the song was used by Sir George Robey and Violet Loraine in the 1916 musical "The Bing Boys are Here." Then the song was sung by Binnie Hale, dressed as a parlor maid, in the 1929 musical "Mr. Cinders." More than half a century later, Sting sang it over the closing credits of the film version of Dennis Potter's "Brimstone and Treacle" in 1982. About the same time, the song was used on British television for a commercial to advertise margarine. He died of an asthma attack in England in 1941. In 2005 with much fanfare, his friends and family placed a slab on top of his grave and at the foot of his old upright marker. The slab has an inscription giving credit to him for receiving a Gold Medal at the 1928 and 1934 Winter Olympics in the category of bobsledding. This was an American team. In the Florida newspaper, the "Sarasota Herald-Tribune" on March 8, 1948, an interview with Clifford "Tippy" Gray, the two-time Olympic bobsled Gold Medalist, was published, and he died April of 1968 in California.
Actor, Author. He was a British lyricist, screenwriter and actor. He was born in Birmingham, and appeared in 22 silent films, but retired as an actor with the coming of sound, after which he contributed to the screenplays of 38 films, the best-known of which are "Brewster's Millions" in 1935 and "The Lambeth Walk" in 1939. He is, however, remembered chiefly as the co-author with Greatrex Newman of the lyrics for the song "If You were the Only Girl in the World and I were the Only Boy." Nat D. Ayer wrote the music for the popular tune. First the song was used by Sir George Robey and Violet Loraine in the 1916 musical "The Bing Boys are Here." Then the song was sung by Binnie Hale, dressed as a parlor maid, in the 1929 musical "Mr. Cinders." More than half a century later, Sting sang it over the closing credits of the film version of Dennis Potter's "Brimstone and Treacle" in 1982. About the same time, the song was used on British television for a commercial to advertise margarine. He died of an asthma attack in England in 1941. In 2005 with much fanfare, his friends and family placed a slab on top of his grave and at the foot of his old upright marker. The slab has an inscription giving credit to him for receiving a Gold Medal at the 1928 and 1934 Winter Olympics in the category of bobsledding. This was an American team. In the Florida newspaper, the "Sarasota Herald-Tribune" on March 8, 1948, an interview with Clifford "Tippy" Gray, the two-time Olympic bobsled Gold Medalist, was published, and he died April of 1968 in California.
Bio by: Iain MacFarlaine
Inscription
On original upright marker "In happy memory of Clifford Grey, who left us on Sept. 25th, 1941."
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