Clive Elliott was born in Spain at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and raised in Spain, France and Portugal. He went to England in 1947 and attended Grammar School which he walked out of aged 17 one lunch time and never went back. After two years in the Army he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and went on the professional stage in 1957. He appeared in many plays in London and in the provinces, made countless Television appearances, did radio broadcasts, wrote and directed 27 plays and musicals, appeared in a couple of movies (which he hated) had a solo Mime act, and even joined the circus for a while as a clown. He taught at the Guildford School of Acting, Surrey University, London University (The Laban Center for Movement and Dance) and The English National Opera. He first came to Iowa in 1981 at the behest of the Iowa Arts Council as their first International Artist. In 1988 he was invited to join the faculty of Drake as the Daniel B Goldberg Artist in Residence in the Theatre Arts Department. He teaches Voice, Acting, Dialects, Audition Technique, American Musical Theatre, Period Movement and Style, Creative Dramatics for Children, Mime, directs two shows a year and occasionally performs in one.

In Des Moines he was the Artistic Director of "Shakespeare on the Loose" and danced two seasons with Ballet Iowa at the Civic Center.