Odets, Clifford, 1906-63, American dramatist, b. Philadelphia. After graduating from high school he became an actor and in 1931 joined the Group Theatre. Turning his attention from acting to playwriting, Odets soon came to be regarded as the most gifted of the American naturalistic social-protest dramatists of the 1930s. His first work for the Group, Waiting for Lefty (1935), a vernacular, Marxian drama of the awakening and insurgency of the impoverished working classes, aroused immediate international attention. Awake and Sing (1935), his first full-length play and widely considered his best work, compassionately portrays the struggles and rebellion of a financially destitute Jewish-American family. Other plays include Till the Day I Die (1935), Paradise Lost (1935), Golden Boy (1937), Night Music (1939), and Clash by Night (1942). Odets spent many years in Hollywood writing film scripts, e.g., Sweet Smell of Success (1957). In his later plays he turned from social drama to self-conscious dramas of the individual, such as The Big Knife (1949), The Country Girl (1950), and The Flowering Peach (1954).

(born July 18, 1906, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Aug. 14, 1963, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. playwright. He acted with repertory companies in 1923–28 and joined the Group Theatre in 1931. His first play, the social-protest drama Waiting for Lefty (1935), helped establish his and the company's reputation. He followed it with Awake and Sing! (1935) and Golden Boy (1937). In the late 1930s he moved to Hollywood, where he wrote screenplays and directed the movies None but the Lonely Heart (1944) and The Story on Page One (1959). His later plays include The Big Knife (1949), The Country Girl (1950), and The Flowering Peach (1954).

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Clifford is both a given name and a surname of English origin that applies to a number of individuals or places. It simply means a cliff by a ford. Clifford was a world known surname mainly in the 18th century but unfortunately lost its importance over the years. Today the name "Clifford" is spread amongst Europe and USA.

Places

England

• Clifford, Herefordshire
• Clifford, West YorkshireUnited States
• Clifford, Indiana
• Clifford, Michigan
• Clifford, North Dakota
• Clifford, Pennsylvania

People

Given name

• Clifford Brown (1930 - 1956), American jazz trumpeter
• Cliff Burton (1962 - 1986), bass guitarist of American metal band Metallica
• Clifford Davies, musician and drummer for Ted Nugent and If
• C. M. Eddy, Jr. (1896 - 1967), American author
• Clifford Goldstein, Seventh-day Adventist author and editor
• Clifford Odets (1906 - 1963), American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester
• Clifford D. Simak (1904 - 1988), American science-fiction writer
• Clifford Stoll, astronomer, computer systems administrator, and author
• Method Man, Clifford Smith
• T.I., Clifford Joseph Harris Jr.

Surname

• Lady Anne Clifford (1590-1676), Countess of Pembroke; undertook significant building and restoration work in Westmorland and surrounding counties
• Augustus William James Clifford (1788–1877), British naval officer and court official
• Charles Clifford, 1st Baronet Clifford, of Flaxbourne (1813-1893), New Zealand politician
• Clark McAdams Clifford (1906-1998), former U.S. Secretary of Defense
• Edward Clifford (1844-1907), an English artist and author
• Francis Clifford (author) (1917 - 1975), the pen name of Arthur Leonard Bell Thompson, author of mystery thrillers
• Henry Hugh Clifford (1826–1883), British army officer
• John Clifford (choreographer), former New York City Ballet principal dancer
• Max Clifford (b. 1943), an English publicist
• Michael R. Clifford (b. 1952), U.S. astronaut
• Nathan Clifford (1803–1881), American statesman, diplomat and jurist
• Rosamund Clifford (c. 1150-1176), "Fair Rosamund", mistress of Henry II of England
• William Clifford (1811-1841), English cricketer
• William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879), mathematician and philosopher
• Clifford Algebra, a type of associative algebra

Other

• Clifford the Big Red Dog, a children's book character and a TV-series based on it
• Clifford (Muppet), a Muppet character performed by Kevin Clash
• Clifford (film), a 1994 film

See also

• Baron Clifford
• Baron Clifford of Chudleigh
• Baron de Clifford
• Clifford Baronets