CLAUDINE Walker found Hollywood fame unexpectedly when she and her sisters became known as the Mawby Triplets.

They appeared in films alongside the likes of Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford and Loretta Young and were bridesmaids at the wedding of Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jnr.

Their fame sprang from a picture taken by a photographer on the Queen Mary as they were sailing to America in the hope that the warm climate would help their mother’s health.

The shot was spotted by an MGM talent scout and they were cast in their first film, The Baby Cyclone, in 1928.

They made 24 films in three years and were feted by everyone from Robert Taylor to George Bernard Shaw, earning an astronomical £25 a day at the height of their fame.

But the three were not really triplets – Angella was 11 months older while Claudine and Claudette were twins.

Claudine’s son Tim, a former Daily Echo journalist, said: “Everybody assumed, because they did look alike and there was a short period of time between their births, that they were triplets, which was that time was very rare.”

The girls’ parents became concerned for their safety following kidnap threats and the abduction and murder of the aviator Charles Lind-bergh’s baby son.

They returned to Britain and appeared in the West End musical Going Places. A Punch cartoon at the time had a theatre-goer saying: “At least two of them are triplets!”

Claudine’s showbiz career was over by the age of 17 but she had no regrets, according to Tim, the youngest of seven children from her marriage to Spitfire pilot William Walker.

“Hollywood did afford her some great roles but I think the role of being a mother she loved more than any role Hollywood could have given her,” he said.

Claudine was, however, profoundly sad at the death of her twin Claudette, killed by a V-1 flying bomb in World War Two.

“She was in Scotland when it happened and she said she fainted at the exact moment. There was a special bond which I don’t think we entirely understand,” Tim added.

Claudine came to live in Dorset 40 years ago and continued to swim regularly in the sea near her Canford Cliffs home until earlier this year.

“If it was a sunny day and the water was relatively calm, she would be in,” said Tim.

Although her films are rarely seen today, some vintage clips of The Mawby Triplets can be glimpsed in the prologue to the 1975 Neil Simon comedy The Sunshine Boys.