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Who2 Biography:

Harold Lloyd

, Actor/Filmmaker
Harold Lloyd
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  • Born: 20 April 1893
  • Birthplace: Burchard, Nebraska
  • Died: 8 March 1971 (prostate cancer)
  • Best Known As: Comedy movie star of the silent era

Harold Lloyd began in motion pictures in 1913. After making dozens of silent shorts, Lloyd graduated to writing, directing and starring in feature comedies, and he became one of Hollywood's first movie stars. Lloyd was uncannily athletic in his stunts; his most famous on-screen persona was called simply "Glasses Character," a hapless fellow continually in peril. A shot of Lloyd hanging from the hands of a giant clock, 12 stories above a city street, is one of the best-known images of the silent comedy era. (The film was 1923's Safety Last.) Lloyd continued to make films in the sound era, though without the same success, and released compilations into the 1960s.

His adoring public never knew that Lloyd had accidentally blown off his right thumb and forefinger in 1919. In his films he wore a glove and a prosthesis.

 
 
Actor:

Harold Lloyd

  • Born: Apr 20, 1893 in Burchard, Nebraska
  • Died: Mar 08, 1971 in Beverly Hills, California
  • Occupation: Actor, Director, Writer
  • Active: teens-'20s
  • Major Genres: Comedy
  • Career Highlights: The Kid Brother, Safety Last, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
  • First Major Screen Credit: Over the Fence (1917)

Biography

An all-American boy with an all-American childhood, comedian Harold Lloyd became entranced with amateur dramatic productions through odd jobs as a theatre usher, call boy, and stage hand. After working in a stock company where he specialized in intricate character make-up, Lloyd moved from Nebraska to California, where there was more theatrical work. While assisting at a San Diego dramatic school, Lloyd took extra work in several of the silent film companies operating up the coast in Los Angeles. One of his fellow extras was Hal Roach, who had plans to become a film producer. One small inheritance later, Roach set up his own movie company and hired Lloyd as his comedy star. Lloyd's first film character, Willie Work, didn't work, though it enabled him to teach himself the skills of film comedy from the ground up. Leaving Roach briefly for bit work at Mack Sennett's Keystone studios, Lloyd returned to Roach and developed a new characterization, Lonesome Luke -- which frankly wasn't new at all but a direct steal of Charlie Chaplin's "tramp." Be that as it may, Roach and Lloyd's "Lonesome Luke" two-reelers, which co-starred Bebe Daniels, were very popular, but Lloyd got sick of the imitation and set about creating a more original character. In later years, both Lloyd and Roach took separate credit for coming up with the "glasses" character -- a handsome, normal looking youth who wore horned-rimmed glasses. Whoever thought it up, it was manna from heaven for Lloyd, whose star ascended once he got away from heavy character make-up and silly costumes and concentrated on playing a comic variation on the "average guy". Determining to be funny at all times on screen, Lloyd surrounded himself with a crack team of gagmen, who came up with endless comic bits of business for his new character. With their two-reelers doing terrific business, Lloyd and Roach began working their way towards feature films, which would bring in even more revenue. Lloyd's first feature, Grandma's Boy (1922), set the tone for his subsequent films: he played a character who "grew" either in strength or integrity as the film progressed. The film itself had a strong plotline to support his character, and the gags flowed freely and naturally from the action, instead of being inserted for their own sake, as often happened in silent film comedy. Though Lloyd would vary his "glasses" character from film to film -- a spoiled rich lad in one picture, a humble clerk in the next -- he never strayed far from the likeable boy-next-door that he'd established in his short subjects. Lloyd left Hal Roach to form his own production company in 1924, and the annual feature releases which followed -- most especially The Freshman (1925) -- established Harold as the top moneymaking comedian in the movies. "As rich as Croesus," to quote film critic Andrew Sarris, Lloyd invested his savings in a huge Beverly Hills estate, Greenacres, where he would live the rest of his life with his wife (and former co-star) Mildred Davis and their children. Uniquely attuned to the optimistic 1920s, Harold's go-getting screen character had trouble surviving the Depression-era 1930s; though he made a successful transition to sound with 1929's Welcome Danger, each of Lloyd's subsequent talking features grossed less than the previous one at the box office. He took up to two years to produce a film, and was more careful than ever to maintain his high standards, but despite excellent films like Movie Crazy (1932) and The Milky Way (1936), Lloyd's jazz-age character seemed out of step and anachronistic in more desperate times. He left films as an actor in 1938, dabbling briefly as a producer for RKO in the early 1940s and working on occasion in radio. When time seemed ripe for a screen comeback in 1946, it was with The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, which might have been a better film had not Lloyd clashed so vehemently with his director, eccentric genius Preston Sturges. A still fabulously wealthy Beverly Hills resident whose activities in charity and municipal work brought him universal respect, Lloyd devoted the 1950s to his favorite hobbies, painting and stereoscopic photography. Feeling somewhat forgotten in the early 1960s, Lloyd began releasing his old films theatrically with modest success, and just before his death agreed to their long-awaited TV distribution; still the creative dynamo, Lloyd insisted upon personally re-editing his old films so that they would play better on TV. To many around the world, Lloyd was one of the richest, nicest, and most accessible film stars in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

 
Biography: Harold Lloyd

Beginning his career in motion pictures in 1914 and quickly moving under the direction of Hal Roach, Harold Lloyd (1893-1971) developed a bespectacled "nice-guy" persona that transformed him into one of the most popular comedians of the silent film era.

Apair of dark, oversized horn-rimmed glasses providing him with a recognizable trademark comparable to Charlie Chaplin's black mustachio and Buster Keaton's deadpan expression, silent film actor Harold Lloyd matured from a film extra into one of America's most popular comedians, embodying as he did the mythos of the hard-working, optimistic, all-American boy-next-door. He exhibited physical agility and courage while performing the daredevil stunts that appeared in many of his films throughout the 1920s and the early 1930s. Yet, Lloyd's primary role on-screen was as a shy, somewhat nervous young man who, through misadventure rather than any fault of his own, was constantly confronted by circumstances threatening to thwart his efforts at a quiet, happy life. More recent generations of film fans still recognize Lloyd from the movie stills that depict his conservative character in some sort of incongruous predicament. He may have been hanging many yards from the ground, from one hand of a huge clock face, or clinging to the side of a skyscraper, with no way down. Among Lloyd's most notable films were The Freshman and Safety Last, both made before the advent of talking pictures.

Bitten by the Acting Bug

Born in Burchard, Nebraska, on April 20, 1893, Lloyd inherited a stubborn pioneering spirit from his grandfather, owner of one of the state's first general stores. His family moved frequently due to his rootless father's shifting career choices. At one point, J. Darsie Lloyd dabbled in photography, while another year found him running a pool hall. Young Harold managed to stay in school and completed his high school education in San Diego, California. By 1911, the start of his senior year, Lloyd had demonstrated his intelligence through his skill on the debate team and his physical agility in the boxing ring. Because of the extensive acting experience he accumulated over his teen years, Lloyd was awarded leading roles in all the school plays, as well as in several local theatre productions.

Seeing the 1903 showing of The Great Train Robbery fixed forever in Lloyd's mind an exciting possibility: working in the movies. Fascinated by acting and the theatre since he was a small boy, Lloyd had developed a collection of useful skills ranging from stagehand and makeup artistry through a range of talents gained from a series of backstage apprenticeships. While films raised his interest, the stage continued to be Lloyd's home until his late teens. His first acting experience came on the stage, with his debut that of Fleance in a small-town production of Shakespeare's Macbeth. In 1907, 11-year-old Lloyd began a relationship with the Burwood, Nebraska, Stock Company that enabled him to go on stage whenever a production called for casting a young boy.

After graduation from high school in San Diego, Lloyd established a new working relationship to replace that which he had lost by leaving Burwood. He put his make-up skills to use at the New Grand Theatre Stock Company, by disguising his youth and playing old men and other unusual characters. A small part in a silent film shot in San Diego by the Edison Company in 1913 rekindled Lloyd's interest in movies when he was cast as a Yanqui Indian and paid $3 for a day's shooting. In 1913, he traveled to Los Angeles, where he found roles in several stage productions. Lloyd also pursued his dream of working in films by donning full makeup and sneaking into one of several film studios by mixing in with groups of working actors returning from their lunch break. This technique gained him more small parts with Edison and eventually got him a position with Hollywood's Universal Studios.

Casting Calls at Hal Roach Studios

While waiting for casting calls at Universal, Lloyd became friends with Hal Roach, a fellow film extra and an aspiring film director. Benefiting from a family inheritance in 1914, the fortunate Roach achieved his dream and established his own studio the following year. He hired Lloyd to act in several of his one-reel productions as a comedian. Together the two film buffs created a character they called Willie Work, which Lloyd performed. While Willie wasn't that successful with audiences, his next character, Lonesome Luke attracted a following as a film character. Lloyd's growing comedic skills became increasingly noticed. Finally, Pathe studios approached Roach and he lost exclusive use of his friend. The bigger studio lured Lloyd into their stable of actors with promises of better pay - $50 per week, as opposed to the $5 per day he was earning from Roach - and significant leading roles. Under contract to Pathe, Lloyd further developed the Lonesome Luke character as a misfit - inspired by Chaplin's character - garbed in clothing a size too small who ambled, a reel at a time, through short films characterized by little or no plot balanced against a heavy dose of 100-percent improvised slapstick.

While the Lonesome Luke character continued to be successful, Lloyd soon realized that the extensive frenetic chase scenes and impromptu pratfalls comprising such films were not enough to make him the recognizable star Chaplin was. In 1917, in a one-reel film titled Over the Fence, he finally donned the pair of round, horned-rimmed spectacles, low-key suit, and straw boater hat that would become so familiar to film audiences. Roach and Pathe made their star's new "college boy" look well known to moviegoers, producing an average of a film a week over the next five years. Stumbling along the road to the American dream, Lloyd's "Glass" character proved to be one that audiences identified with. He was not as well endowed with looks, money, or clout as his more successful co-stars. Yet, through sheer determination and quick thinking, Lloyd's character ultimately achieved his goal of modest happiness, spurred on by the attentions of a succession of co-stars that included Bebe Daniels, Mildred Davis, Jobyna Ralston, and Constance Cummings. Pathe produced more than 100 one-reel films featuring the "Glass" character between 1918 and 1919. They switched to two-reel films following the success of Bumping into Broadway.

Crowned King of Daredevil Comedy

Because of films like High and Dizzy (1920) and Safety Last (1923) - famous for the scene where the actor, billed here as a timid store clerk, dangles from the face of a clock tower - Lloyd developed a reputation as a risk-taker. Like Buster Keaton, Lloyd performed his own stunts, despite the fact that he had received a disabling injury as early as 1919, when a prop bomb created for a special film effect, exploded in his hand during a publicity photo session, blowing off his thumb and almost blinding the actor. However, Lloyd proved wrong any and all predictions claiming his career to be at an end. Back on the job within six months, he expanded his roles and made longer films, starring in his first five-reel feature, Grandma's Boy, for Pathe in 1922.

The movie-going public clamored for more full-length films from Lloyd, and his future as a major film star was assured. Working with the Roach and Pathe studios through the early 1920s, the actor also founded the Harold Lloyd Corporation to produce many of his films between 1924 and 1930. He would continue to do work under contract for Pathe, Fox, and Paramount throughout his career.

Advent of "Talkies" Dampened Lloyd's Appeal

In the typical Lloyd film, the actor played his characteristic persona: a slightly bumbling, naive, quiet fellow - variously a shop clerk, soda jerk, professor, water boy, or milkman - who gets in one fix or another during his pursuit of a disinterested love interest. In Why Worry (1923), Lloyd played a rich young man who has shied from life due to a host of imagined illnesses. Ultimately, he manages to secure the affections of a initially unenthusiastic Mildred Davis. (Interestingly, Miss Davis must have felt quite differently about her co-star off-screen for she and Lloyd were married while the film was being shot at Roach's studio.) In The Freshman (1925), considered by many to be Lloyd's best effort, the bespectacled actor serves as a shy water boy working for his college football team. In typical Lloyd fashion, the geeky freshman ends up saving the game through a freak touchdown just before the game is called. One of the most profitable silent films ever made, The Freshman grossed $2.5 million at the U.S. box-offices.

The introduction of sound to motion pictures ended the career of many silent film stars - particularly romantic leads - whose voices contained accents or other inflections that contradicted the on-screen images they had created during the silent era. While Lloyd's career, which had flourished during the 1920s, did not suffer with the introduction of his voice - characterized by one reviewer as "bland and boyish" - the introduction of dialogue eventually wrought a change within his motion picture audience. In short, the coming of sound supplanted film audience's desire for over-the-top stunts in favor of dialogue and more in-depth characters whose psychological interactions became central to film plots. Despite the success of films such as his 1932 talkie Movie Crazy, by the mid-1930s Lloyd began to consider retiring from the film business. Professor Beware (1938) dissatisfied the actor to such an extent that he retired from acting for several years, devoting his talents to producing several films for RKO.

In 1945, Lloyd once again moved briefly back in front of the camera. The 1947 release of The Sins of Harold Diddlebock as a tepid sequel to the popular The Freshman would mark the end of Lloyd's acting career. Produced by Howard Hughes and directed by Preston Sturges, the film was a screwball comedy typical of the 1940s, featuring a 52-year-old Lloyd still wearing the same horn-rimmed glasses and conservative attire but now uncharacteristically maintaining both feet on the ground. Rereleased as Mad Wednesday, the film did little to spark either audience enthusiasm or its star's desire to resume life as an actor.

After retirement from film, Lloyd remained active in both California's Republican political arena and within his local Hollywood community. Active in the Shriners, he was elected Imperial Potentate of the Shrine in 1949, and served in this national post as a good-will ambassador to the many children's hospitals supported by that organization. The father of three children, Lloyd and his family lived in a large home in Beverly Hills. Retired by age 60, he reaped the benefits of a large income earned both through a strenuous acting career, in which he appeared in more than 500 movies, and from a responsible approach to investing his earnings. A savvy businessman, Lloyd wisely kept control of the film rights to many of the motion pictures he starred in over his lifetime. At the time of his death in Hollywood on March 8, 1971, he left an estate estimated to be one of the largest in Hollywood at that time, its value drawn in part from the fact that much of Lloyd's money was made prior to the establishment of Federal income taxes.

In the early 1960s, Lloyd made compilations of scenes from several of his films. They were released as Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy (1962) and Harold Lloyd's FunnySide of Life (1963), with cuts of Lloyd suspended at a precarious height featured prominently in each. Today Lloyd's films are little shown, with only The Freshman and Safety Last occasionally screened for film buffs. However, his reputation among scholars of motion pictures and fan of early American films remains secure. In 1952, to honor his work as one of the first great film comedians, a special Academy Award was presented: "To Harold Lloyd, master comedian and good citizen."

Further Reading

D'Augustino, Annette M., Harold Lloyd, Greenwood Press, 1994.

Kerr, Walter, The Silent Clowns, Knopf, 1975.

Lloyd, Harold, An American Comedy, 1928.

The Oxford Companion to Film, edited by Liz-Anne Bawden, Oxford University Press, 1976.

Shipman, David, The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years, Crown, 1970.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Harold Lloyd

(born April 20, 1893, Burchard, Neb., U.S. — died March 8, 1971, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. film comedian. He began to appear in one-reel comedies in 1913 and mastered the comic chase scene as a member of Mack Sennett's troupe. He joined Hal Roach's company and created his Lonesome Luke character in popular movies such as Just Nuts (1915). He developed his trademark white-faced character wearing round glasses in 1918. Noted for his use of physical danger as a source of laughter, he performed his own daring stunts, hanging from the hands of a clock far above the street in Safety Last (1923) and standing in for a football tackling-dummy in The Freshman (1925). He was the highest paid star of the 1920s. He received a special Academy Award in 1952.

For more information on Harold Lloyd, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Lloyd, Harold,
1893–1971, American movie actor, b. Burchard, Kans. Lloyd was famous for his comic portrayals of a wistful innocent with horn-rimmed glasses who blunders in and out of hair-raising situations. His natural style of acting helped to create a believable character that made Lloyd the most popular film comedian of the 1920s. He appeared in over 500 films, including many shorts, spanning both the silent and sound eras; among them were Safety Last (1923), Girl Shy (1924), The Freshman (1925), Movie Crazy (1932), and Mad Wednesday (1947).

Bibliography

See S. Lloyd and J. Vance, Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian (2002).

 
Wikipedia: Harold Lloyd
Not to be confused with Harry Lloyd.
Harold Clayton Lloyd
Born April 20 1893(1893--)
Flag of the United States Burchard, Nebraska
Died March 8 1971 (aged 77)
Flag of the United States Beverly Hills
Spouse(s) Mildred Davis

Harold Clayton Lloyd (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies.

Harold Lloyd ranks alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of the most popular and influential film comedians of the silent film era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and "talkies", between 1914 and 1947. He is best known for his "Glasses Character", a resourceful, success-seeking go-getter who was perfectly in tune with 1920s era America.

His films frequently contained "thrill sequences" of extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats, for which he is best remembered today. Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in Safety Last! (1923) is one of the most enduring images in all of cinema. Lloyd did many of these dangerous stunts himself, despite having injured himself during the filming of Haunted Spooks (1920) when an accident with a prop bomb resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand (the injury was disguised on film with the use of a special prosthetic glove, though the glove often did not go by unnoticed).

Although Lloyd's individual films were not as commercially successful as Charlie Chaplin's on average, he was far more prolific (releasing twelve feature films in the 1920s while Chaplin released just three), and they made more money overall ($15.7 million to Chaplin's $10.5 million).

Early life and entry into films

Harold Lloyd in Safety Last! in 1923
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Harold Lloyd in Safety Last! in 1923

Lloyd was born in Burchard, Nebraska to James Darsie Lloyd and Elizabeth Fraser; his paternal great-grandparents were from Wales.[1] Lloyd had moved west with his family after his father failed in numerous business ventures.

He had acted in theater since boyhood, and started acting in one-reel film comedies shortly after moving to California in 1912 in San Diego, California. Lloyd soon began working with Thomas Edison's motion picture company, and eventually formed a partnership with fellow struggling actor and director Hal Roach, who had formed his own studio in 1913. The hard-working Lloyd became the most successful of Roach's comic actors between 1915 and 1919.

He hired Bebe Daniels as a supporting actress in 1914; the two of them were involved romantically and were known as "The Boy" and "The Girl". In 1919, she left Lloyd because of greater dramatic aspirations. Lloyd replaced Daniels with Mildred Davis in 1919, who the more he watched (from a movie Hal Roach told him to check out) the more he was eager to get her. Lloyd's first reaction in seeing her was that "she looked like a big French doll!"[citation needed]

Lloyd's early film character "Lonesome Luke" was by his own admission a frenetic imitation of Chaplin. By 1918, Lloyd and Roach had developed the "Glasses Character" (always named "Harold" in the films), a much more mature comedy character with greater potential for sympathy and emotional depth. Beginning in 1921, they moved from shorts to feature length comedies. These included the acclaimed Grandma's Boy (1922), which (along with Chaplin's The Kid) pioneered the combination of complex character development and film comedy, the sensational Safety Last! (1923), which cemented Lloyd's stardom, and Why Worry? (1923).

Lloyd and Roach parted ways in 1924, and Lloyd became the independent producer of his own films. These included his most accomplished mature features Girl Shy (1924), The Freshman (1925), The Kid Brother (1927), and Speedy (1928). Welcome Danger (1929) was originally a silent film but Lloyd decided late in the production to remake it with dialogue. All of these films were enormously successful and profitable[citation needed]. They were also highly influential and still find many fans among modern audiences, a testament to the originality and film-making skill of Lloyd and his talented collaborators. Like the other great silent comics, Lloyd was the driving creative force in his films, particularly the feature-length films[citation needed]. From this success he became one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in early Hollywood.

'Talkies' and semi-successful transition

In 1924 he formed his own independent film production company, the Harold Lloyd Film Corporation, with his films distributed by Pathé and later Paramount and Twentieth Century-Fox. Lloyd was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Lloyd made the transition to sound in 1929 with Welcome Danger (the original unreleased silent version of this film was screened in various cities on the 2005 re-release of Lloyd's films). Released a few weeks before the start of the Great Depression, it was a huge financial success, with audiences eager to hear Lloyd's voice on film. Lloyd's rate of film releases, which had been one or two a year in the 1920s, slowed to about one every two years until 1938.

The films released during this period were: Feet First (1930), with a similar scenario to Safety Last which found him clinging to a skyscraper at the climax; Movie Crazy (1932) with Constance Cummings; The Cat's-Paw (1934), which was a dark political comedy and a big departure for Lloyd; and The Milky Way (1936), which was Lloyd's only attempt at screwball comedy, at that point hugely fashionable.

To this point the films had been personally produced by Lloyd's own company, Unfortunately, his go-getting screen character was now out of touch with Great Depression movie audiences of the 1930s. As the length of time between his film releases increased, his popularity declined, and so did his production company. His final film of the decade, Professor Beware, was made by the Paramount staff, with Lloyd functioning only as actor and partial financier.

On March 23, 1937, Lloyd sold the land of his studio Harold Lloyd Motion Picture Company to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The location is now the site of the Los Angeles California Temple.[1]

Lloyd produced a few comedies for RKO Radio Pictures in the early 1940s but otherwise retired from the screen until 1947. He returned for an additional starring appearance in The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947), an ill-fated homage to Lloyd's career directed by Preston Sturges and financed by Howard Hughes. The idea was to show what happened to Harold's optimistic character from The Freshman in later life. Diddlebock actually opened with footage from The Freshman, and Lloyd was sufficiently youthful-looking to match the older scenes quite well. Lloyd and Sturges had different conceptions of the material, however, and fought frequently during the shoot. The finished film was released briefly in 1947, then shelved by producer Hughes. Hughes recut the film and reissued in 1950 under the title Mad Wednesday. It was a sad end to a brilliant film career.

Marriage and home

Lloyd married his leading lady, Mildred Davis, on Saturday February 10, 1923. Together, they had two children: Gloria Lloyd (born 1923), and Harold Lloyd, Jr., (1931-1971). They also adopted Peggy (1924-1986) in 1930. Lloyd, for a time, discouraged Davis from continuing her acting career. He later relented, but by that time her career momentum was lost. Mildred died in 1969, two years before Lloyd's death.

Harold Lloyd and future wife: Mildred Davis in I Do in 1921
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Harold Lloyd and future wife: Mildred Davis in I Do in 1921

Lloyd's Beverly Hills home, "Greenacres" was built in 1926–1929, with 44 rooms, 26 bathrooms, 12 fountains, 12 gardens, and a nine hole golf course. The estate left the possession of the Lloyd family in 1975, after a failed attempt to maintain it as a public museum.

The grounds were subsequently subdivided, but the main house remains and is frequently used as a filming location, appearing in films like Westworld and The Loved One (film). It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Radio and retirement

In October 1944, he emerged as the director and host of The Old Gold Comedy Theater, an NBC radio anthology series, when Preston Sturges turned the job down but recommended him for it. The show presented half-hour radio adaptations of recently successful film comedies, launching with a version of Palm Beach Story with Claudette Colbert and Robert Young.

Some saw The Old Gold Comedy Theater as being a lighter version of Lux Radio Theater, and it featured some of the best-known film and radio personalities of the day, including Fred Allen, June Allyson, Lucille Ball, Ralph Bellamy, Linda Darnell, Susan Hayward, Herbert Marshall, Dick Powell, Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, and Alan Young, among others. But the show's half-hour format — which meant the material might have been truncated too severely — and Lloyd's sounding somewhat ill at ease on the air for much of the season (though he spent weeks training himself to speak on radio prior to the show's premiere, and seemed more relaxed toward the end of the series run) may have worked against it.

The Old Gold Comedy Theater ended in June 1945 with an adaptation of Tom, Dick, and Harry, featuring June Allyson and Reginald Gardiner and was not renewed for the following season. Many years later, acetate discs of 29 of the shows were discovered in Lloyd's home, and they now circulate among old-time radio collectors.

Lloyd remained involved in a number of other interests, including civic and charity work. Inspired by having overcome his own serious injuries and burns, he was very active with the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, and eventually rose to that organization's highest office, Imperial Potentate.

He appeared as himself on several television shows during his retirement, first on Ed Sullivan's variety show Toast of the Town June 5, 1949 and again in July 6, 1958. He appeared as the Mystery Guest on What's My Line? in April 26, 1953, and twice on This Is Your Life: on March 10, 1954 for Mack Sennett, and again on December 14, 1955 on his own episode.[2]

Lloyd studied colors, microscopy, and was very involved with photography, including 3D photography and color film experiments. Some of the earliest 2-color Technicolor tests were shot at his Beverly Hills home. He became known for his nude photographs of models, such as Bettie Page and stripper Dixie Evans, for a number of men's magazines. He also took photos of Marilyn Monroe lounging at his pool in a bathing suit which were published after their deaths. In 2004, his granddaughter Suzanne produced a book of selections from his photographs, Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D! (ISBN 1-57912-394-5).

Lloyd also provided encouragement and support for a number of younger actors, including Jack Lemmon, Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner.

Renewed interest

The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection of DVDs, released November 2005
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The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection of DVDs, released November 2005

Lloyd kept copyright control of most of his films and re-released them infrequently after his retirement. As a consequence, his reputation and public recognition suffered in comparison with Chaplin and Keaton, whose work has generally been more available.

Also, Lloyd's film character was so intimately associated with the 1920s era that attempts at revivals in 1940s and 1950s were poorly received, when audiences viewed the 1920s (and silent film in particular) as old-fashioned. In the early 1960s, Lloyd produced two compilation films, featuring scenes from his old comedies, Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy (1962) and The Funny Side of Life (1963).

These films were positively received and renewed interest in Lloyd, helping to restore Lloyd's status among film historians. Throughout his later years he screened his films for audiences at special charity and educational events, to great acclaim.

Following his death, most of his feature films were marketed by Time-Life Films and shown frequently on television, but these were poorly presented, with intrusive narration and insensitive musical scores. Through the efforts of Kevin Brownlow and David Gill and the support of granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd Hayes, the British Thames Silents series re-released some of the feature films in the early 1990s on video (with new orchestral scores by Carl Davis).

More recently, the remainder of Lloyd's great silent features and many shorts were fully restored, with new orchestral scores by Robert Israel. These are now frequently shown on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable channel. An acclaimed 1990 documentary by Brownlow and Gill also created a renewed interest in Lloyd's work in the early 1990s. A DVD Collection of restored versions of most of his feature films (and his more important shorts) was released by New Line Cinema in partnership with the Harold Lloyd Trust in November 2005, along with limited theatrical screenings in New York and other cities in the US, Canada and Europe. Annette Lloyd has also said that if there is a large-enough show of support by fans, a second collection may be released in the future[3].

Academy Award

In 1952, Lloyd received a special Academy Award for being a "master comedian and good citizen." The second citation was a snub to Chaplin, who at that point had fallen foul of McCarthyism and who had had his entry visa to the United States revoked. Regardless of political aspects, Lloyd accepted the award in good part.

Death

Lloyd died at age 77 from prostate cancer on March 8, 1971, in Beverly Hills, California, U.S.. He was interred in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

"The Third Genius"

Lloyd was the subject of a television documentary series produced in 1989, by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, which followed similar acclaimed documentaries about the other great silent film clowns Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. [2] The film was shown in Britain on Thames Television and in America on the PBS program American Masters. Through the participation of Lloyd's granddaughter and estate trustee, Suzanne Lloyd, the filmakers had full access to Lloyd's films and his personal archive.

A highlight of this program was an interview with Lloyd's friend and partner Hal Roach, then 98 years old. Other Lloyd associates, friends, and family members also participated in the film.

The two hour documentary revealed the methods behind Lloyd's celebrated high-altitude stunts, which he rarely discussed in public during his lifetime. They were staged on prop facades built above the entrance to the Hill Street Tunnel, or on the rooftops of other buildings in downtown Los Angeles. Lloyd was usually about 20 feet above a hidden platform, but the camera was positioned such that Lloyd appeared to be high above the streets below. The documentary noted, however, that if Lloyd had fallen, he might well have plummeted to the street despite these precautions.

Walk of Fame

Harold Lloyd has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His was only the fourth ceremony preserving his handprints, footprints, autograph, and outline of his famed glasses, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, in 1927. In 1994, he was honored with his image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.

Tributes and references to Lloyd

  • In the opening scene of Back to the Future, amongst the plethora of clocks in "Doc" Brown's house, one featuring the tiny figure of Lloyd hanging from the hands can be seen.
  • Lloyd is mentioned in the 2004 movie I, Robot.

Filmography

Surviving films

These are the films which are known to survive in various film archives around the world. Some are also available on video or DVD. Tragically, the negatives of many of Lloyd's early short films were lost in a fire at his estate in 1943. He carefully preserved his feature films, and they remain in excellent conditon. Please note: this list is constantly changing as new films are discovered all the time, and is very likely incomplete. All of the films are listed in order of release date.

  • Give and Take (1994 - may be an alternate title for some other film)

Early

Lonesome Luke

    • Some Baby (1915) - with Snub Pollard
    • Giving Them Fits (1915)
    • Peculiar Patients' Pranks (1915)
    • Luke, the Candy Cut-Up (1916)
    • Luke and the Rural Roughnecks (1916)
    • Luke, Crystal Gazer (1916)
    • Luke Joins the Navy (1916)
    • Luke and the Bang-Tails, or Luke and the Bangtails (1916)
    • Luke's Movie Muddle, also known as The Cinema Director (1916)
    • Luke Locates the Loot (1916)
    • Luke's Shattered Sleep (1916)
    • Lonesome Luke on Tin Can Alley (1917)
    • Lonesome Luke, Messenger (1917)
    • Lonesome Luke's Wild Women (1917)

Glasses character ("The Boy")

    • Over the Fence (1917) - introduction of the "glass character"
    • Pinched (1917)
    • By the Sad Sea Waves (1917)
    • Bliss (1917)
    • Rainbow Island (1917)
    • The Flirt (1917)
    • Lonesome Luke in When Clubs Are Trump (1917) - as Lonesome Luke (who was still a huge audience draw, much to Lloyd's chagrin)
    • All Aboard (1917)
    • Move On (1917)
    • Bashful (1917)
    • Step Lively (1917)
    • Back to the Woods (1918)
    • The Tip (1918)
    • Beat It (1918)
    • A Gasoline Wedding (1918)
    • Look Pleasant, Please (1918)
    • Here Come the Girls (1918)
    • Let's Go (1918)
    • Pipe the Whiskers (1918), as Janitor
    • It's a Wild Life (1918)
    • The Non-Stop Kid (1918)
    • Two-Gun Gussie (1918)
    • Fireman, Save My Child (1918)
    • The City Slicker (1918)
    • Somewhere in Turkey (1918)
    • An Ozark Romance (1918)
    • Are Crooks Dishonest?, sometimes wrongly titled as Doing, Doing, Done (1918)
    • Why Pick on Me? (1918)
    • Hear 'Em Rave (1918)
    • Take a Chance (1918)
    • She Loves Me Not (1918)
    • On the Jump (1918)
    • Pay Your Dues (1919)
    • Going! Going! Gone! (1919)
    • Ask Father (1919)
    • On the Fire, aka. The Chef (1919)
    • I'm on My Way (1919)
    • Look Out Below (1919)
    • Next Aisle Over (1919)
    • A Sammy In Siberia (1919)
    • Young Mr. Jazz (1919)
    • Ring Up the Curtain, aka. Back-Stage! (1919)
    • The Marathon (1919)
    • Spring Fever (1919)
    • Billy Blazes, Esq. (1919) — as Billy Blazes; the film was a parody of Westerns of the time
    • Just Neighbors (1919)
    • At the Old Stage Door (1919)
    • Never Touched Me (1919)
    • Count Your Change (1919)
    • Chop Suey & Co. (1919)
    • Be My Wife (1919)
    • Don't Shove (1919)
    • Bumping Into Broadway (1919)
    • His Only Father (1919)
    • Captain Kidd's Kids (1919)
    • From Hand to Mouth (1919)
    • His Royal Slyness (1920)
    • Haunted Spooks (1920)
    • An Eastern Westerner (1920)
    • High and Dizzy (1920)
    • Get Out and Get Under, aka. My Beautiful Automobile(?) (1920)
    • Number, Please? (1920)
    • Now or Never (1921)
    • Among Those Present (1921)
    • I Do (1921)
    • Never Weaken (1921)

Later shorts

Feature-length films

For a detailed listing see: Harold Lloyd's feature films

Autobiography and notable biographies

  • Lloyd, Harold (1928, revised 1971). An American Comedy. 
  • Schickel, Richard (1974). Harold Lloyd: the shape of laughter. New York Graphic Society. ISBN 0-8212-0595-1. 
  • McCaffrey, Donald W. (1976). Three Classic Silent Screen Comedies Starring Harold Lloyd. Associated University Presses. ISBN 0-8386-1455-8. 
  • Reilly, Adam (1977). Harold Lloyd: The king of daredevil comedy. Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-601940-X. 
  • Dardis, Tom (1983). Harold Lloyd: The Man on the Clock. Viking. ISBN 0-14-007555-0. 
  • Vance, Jeffrey, and Suzanne Lloyd (2002). Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian. Harry N Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-1674-6. 
  • D'Agostino Lloyd, Annette M. (2003). The Harold Lloyd Encyclopedia. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1514-2. 

See also

References

  1. ^ Los Angeles California Temple Church of Latter Day Saints. Retrieved March 23, 2007
  2. ^ Harold LloydIMDB.com Appearances as self. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  3. ^ The Trust needs your help. Discussion on Harold Lloyd Community Forum

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:


Feature films starring Harold Lloyd
Silent A Sailor-Made Man (1921) • Grandma's Boy (1922) • Doctor Jack (1922) • Safety Last! (1923) • Why Worry? (1923) • Girl Shy (1924) • Hot Water (1924) • The Freshman (1925) • For Heaven's Sake (1926) • The Kid Brother (1927) • Speedy (1928) • Welcome Danger (1929, released 2005)
Sound Welcome Danger (1929) • Feet First (1930) • Movie Crazy (1932) • The Cat's-Paw (1934) • The Milky Way (1936) • Professor Beware (1938) • The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947)

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