A lifelong golfer, he played in a lot of pro-am golf tournaments for various charities right up until his death, including the Vantage Championship Pro-Am at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, North Carolina, in the early 1990s. He was a close friend and golfing partner of another golf fanatic and veteran movie heavy, Robert J. Wilke.
Graduate of Northwestern University.
He has an entry in Jean Tulard's "Dictionnaire du cinéma/Les acteurs" published in Paris in 2007 by Robert Laffont/Bouquins, pg. 17 (ISBN: 978-2-221-10895-6).
He was always very friendly to everyone and was very gracious in signing every autograph request.
Played chess with his friend, William Windom.
Those who remember him for the many villains he played, especially early in his career, might be surprised to know that his father was a police officer in Claude's home town of Bedford, Indiana.