Clement George Freiherr von und zu Franckenstein is the son of Georg Freiherr von und zu Franckenstein, born in 1878, later Sir George Franckenstein, the former Austrian Ambassador to the Court of St. James. George Franckenstein had been the Austrian Minister in London for eighteen years when the Nazis took over Austria (1938) and recalled him. Instead he stayed in London, was naturalized a British subject, and knighted on 26 July 1938. There he met and married Editha King on 31 July 1939, by whom he had Clement George. Franckenstein is credited with voicing the Great Sage in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
His father, Georg Freiherr von und zu Franckenstein, was the Austrian Ambassador to the Court of St. James. When the Nazis took over Austria in 1938 and recalled him, he stayed in London and was naturalized a British subject and subsequently knighted on July 26, 1938. There he met and married Editha King, and together they had Clement George. His parents were killed together in a plane crash in 1953, and from age nine Clement George was raised by British friends. He was educated at Eton College and served as a lieutenant in the Royal Scots Greys in the Middle East and Germany. Holding both British and Austrian citizenship, he studied opera for about three years, but was not good enough to be a professional, so he decided to become an actor. Until the time he came to US, he sang in nightclubs and had a lot of performing experience before getting into acting at the age of twenty-seven.