Harold Lloyd
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
The tragic bomb blast on August 24, 1919 which cost him his two fingers required a 16-day hospitalization and also incapacitated him for seven months; he always wore a skin-toned rubber glove after that. For the balance of his life, Lloyd never publicly mentioned the loss of his fingers, despite mentioning the explosion aplenty. He did not, as was said during his lifetime, do all his own stunts (though he certainly did his share).
Lloyd produced the first compilation of his work, "Down Memory Lane", for the Masonic order of Shriners (an organization for which he served as Grand Potentate) in 1948 (no public screenings so far as known). He also compiled "Harold Lloyd's Laugh Parade" (1951) for the Shriners.
Biography
Generally ranked alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of the masters of comedy during the silent era, Harold Lloyd created a more conventional personality than his contemporaries with the so-called Glasses Character, an ever-optimistic, constantly striving everyman who thoroughly captured the public's fancy during the 1920s. In fact, throughout most of the decade, his films proved to be more popular than Chaplin's or Keaton's, though in later years those two far outpaced him in terms of their places in cinema history due to Lloyd's tightfisted control over his work. Nonetheless, after developing a Chaplin knockoff character in Lonesome Luke, who managed a successful run from 1915-17, Lloyd reinvented himself as The Boy, the bespectacled optimist who bumbled his way in and out of trouble in often death-defying ways. A pioneer of sight gags and extreme stunts, Lloyd risked life and limb to create some of the most iconic images in silent film, most notably in "Safety Last!" (1923), in which he famously hung by a broken clock hand ten stories off the ground without use of trick photography. He went on to enormous success with hits like his personal favorite "Grandma's Boy" (1922), "Girl Shy" (1924) and "Welcome Danger" (1929), before enjoying measurable popularity in the sound era with "Feet First" (1930), "The Cat's-Paw" (1934) and "The Milky Way" (1936), with the latter being arguably his best talkie. Though his dissolved his production company in 1938 and effectively retired in the next decade, Lloyd fell into obscurity, only to regain prominence after his death, proving that the great comedian's appeal was timeless.
Born on April 20, 1893 in Burchard, NE, Lloyd was raised by his father, James, an itinerant dreamer whose get-rich-quick schemes forced the family to move around and often before usually ending in disaster, and his mother, Elizabeth, who eventually divorced his father in 1910. Prior to his parents' split, Lloyd began performing on stage, making his debut in "Macbeth" with the Shakespeare Repertory Company in Beatrice, NE, before acting with various stock companies in Denver and San Diego. After his parents split, Lloyd's father received a settlement for an on-the-job accident that led to a final move to San Diego, where the young performer enrolled at the School of Dramatic Art. He soon made the transition to one-reel comedies like "A Little Hero" (1913) and "Rory o' the Bogs" (1913), and began working with the Edison Film Company with "The Old Monk's Tale" (1913). After leaving Edison, Lloyd joined forces with Hal Roach, an extra-turned-producer/director who formed his own company, Hal Roach Studios.
Unlike most of the silent comedians of his day, Lloyd had no background in vaudeville, which meant that he brought no time-tested characters to the movies like his contemporaries. With help from Roach, Lloyd created his first major character, Willie Work, whose distinguishing marks were a much-padded coat, a battered silk hat and a cat's whisker mustache. But the character proved to be short-lived, with the comedy "Just Nuts" (1915) being Work's only surviving testament. Learning his craft in front of the camera, Lloyd sought to gain a toehold in an industry already becoming dominated by Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp. Exhibitors unable to distribute Chaplin's films demanded imitations, which left Lloyd to come up with a variation on the Tramp with his second major character, Lonesome Luke. Keeping only the Tramp's oversize shoes, Luke wore tight trousers and a jacket while trading Willie's thick, centered mustache for a two-dot version to complement triangular eyebrows. For three years, Lloyd played the character in a number of shorts like "Lonesome Luke Pipes the Pippins" (1916), "Luke Locates the Loot" (1916), and "Lonesome Luke's Wild Women" (1917). Despite his efforts to be individual and unique, which included a refusal to copy Chaplin's well-known mannerisms, Lloyd was nonetheless branded an imitator.
Bristling at the imitator tag, Lloyd still enjoyed great popularity as Lonesome Luke, but knew the character was not long for this Earth when the inspiration for his third and final character came to him in the spring of 1917. He traded in his triangular eyebrows and thick mustache for a pair of round spectacles to create the Glasses Character, a.k.a. "The Boy" or "Harold," an unwaveringly confident everyman with undying confidence and the constant drive for success. Though Lloyd was enthusiastic about the character, he had difficulty convincing Roach and their distributor Pathe to drop a proven winner in Lonesome Luke - whom they had just elevated to two-reel status - for a brand new character. After battling for months, Lloyd finally debuted the Glasses Character in "Over the Fence" (1917), though he was consigned to making Lonesome Luke films until the success of his new character was assured. Lloyd featured his bespectacled hero in a series of one-reelers to insure exposure in a new film once a week, eventually finding the formula that would make him rich. His character was not an outsider, but rather a working member of society, an optimistic plucker who smiled and fought his way through all adversity to achieve success and get the girl by story's end, which directly mirrored his audience in outward appearance and inward determination.
Since Lloyd was not inherently funny, he relied on jokes and sight gags to propel the storyline. Each gag followed the next in a logical progression until the film's climactic vindication and triumph of the hero. Along with Roach, he made a number of shorts during this period, including "The Flirt" (1917), "Bride and Gloom" (1918), "The Marathon" (1919), "High and Dizzy" (1920) and "Now or Never" (1921). In the latter teens, Lloyd began working with actress Mildred Davis, who often starred opposite him as The Girl and would eventually marry him in 1923. The couple remained together until Davis' death in 1969, despite Lloyd never allowing her to appear in films while he remained an unceasing workaholic as well as engaged in a number of extramarital affairs. An organizational genius, he inaugurated the circle of contributing gagmen and actually helmed most of his films, though there was always a titular director on board to take care of the details. Building the gags into a narrative line facilitated his expansion into feature production, beginning with "Sailor-Made Man" (1921), which co-starred Davis as a girl whose affection he seeks to earn by joining the Navy.
Over the next three years, Lloyd made two features a year before slowing down to only one per annum for the balance of the decade. He next made "Grandma's Boy" (1922), in which he played a timid farm boy unable to woo the girl (Davis) and thwart his rival (Charles Stevenson) until his grandmother (Anna Townsend) gives him a magic charm. A huge success, "Grandma's Boy" was a popular box office hit that Lloyd ranked as one of his favorites. Following the gag-driven "Dr. Jack" (1922), Lloyd starred in the critically hailed box office hit, "Safety Last!" (1923), in which he hilariously portrayed his Glasses Character as an optimistic country boy trying to make good in the big city. Full of comedic thrills, "Safety Last!" was Lloyd's most enduring work, thanks in large part to his iconic climb up a building to avoid the police that ended with him dangling midair and hanging for dear life by the hands of a broken clock - without a doubt one of the most iconic images from the silent era.
Lloyd continued churning out the hits, adapting Glasses into a timid stutterer for "Girl Shy" (1924), one of the top moneymakers of that year, and a college bound lad seeking popularity in "The Freshman" (1925), which was his most profitable ever with over $2.5 million in grosses. He followed by playing a millionaire playboy stuck on the wrong side of town in "For Heaven's Sake" (1926), a timid cowboy trying to earn respect in "The Kid Brother" (1927), and as a nostalgic man attempting to save the last horse-drawn trolley in a modern city in "Speedy" (1928). From film to film, Lloyd effectively brought to life the comedy of the poor, the rich, the oafish and the ambitious, executing dizzying stunts despite hiding the fact that he had lost two fingers on his right hand. Meanwhile, he made a successful entrance into the talkie era with "Welcome Danger" (1929), an enormously popular comedy in which he played an unassuming botany student who finds himself taking over his father's job as chief of police.
Fully embracing the advent of sound in motion pictures, Lloyd continued making about one film a year, enjoying an equal amount of success as he did in the silent era until calling it quits almost for good in 1938. He starred in the popular "Feet First" (1930), another of his famed thrill comedies in which he was an ambitious shoe salesman who tries to win the heart of a secretary (Barbara Kent) by telling her he is a successful tycoon. In "Movie Crazy" (1932), he was a country bumpkin who dreams of being in the movies and finally receives his chance after a photograph mishap lands him in Hollywood. Lloyd next played a naïve young man raised in a Chinese missionary, who returns to the United States to find a wife, only to become innocently entangled in a politically corrupt city in "The Cat's-Paw" (1934). He had his greatest sound success with the screwball comedy "The Milky Way" (1936), in which he played a mild-mannered milkman who surprisingly becomes middleweight champ. Despite the popularity and critical success of his films, Lloyd found himself increasingly out of step with the Great Depression characters that infatuated the public. So after the release of "Professor Beware" (1938), he sold the Harold Lloyd Motion Picture Company to the Mormons and hung up his famous glasses.
Almost a decade later, Lloyd was coaxed out of retirement by director Preston Sturges and producer-tycoon Howard Hughes for "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock " (1947), a labor of love-turned-uneven comedy that was spoiled by the director's inflexibility behind the camera. Meanwhile, the actor never stepped before the camera again, realizing once and for all that his time had passed. But the spotlight shone his way once more when he was presented an honorary Oscar in 1952 for his comedic mastery, putting the icing on the cake to his illustrious career. Lloyd wound down the remainder of his days in his famously grand Beverly Hills home, Greenacres, while making occasional guest appearances on shows like "The Ed Sullivan Show" (CBS, 1948-1971), "What's My Line?" (CBS, 1950-1967) and "This Is Your Life" (NBC, 1952-1961). An avid photographer, Lloyd became known for his nude photos of several celebrity women, as well as a bikini-clad Marilyn Monroe lounging poolside in 1952. Some 200 of his alleged 300,000 photos where published in Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D! (2004), which included a pair of appropriate glasses. Meanwhile, Lloyd owned the rights to his films and zealously guarded them from exploitation, keeping them out of view for so long that his reputation as a comic star faded into near obscurity, while his contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton only grew in stature. After the passing of wife Davis in 1969, Lloyd followed on March 8, 1971, dying from prostate cancer at 77 years old. Following his death, there was renewed interest in his work when the films were finally released by Time-Life Films in 1974. Since then, the pictures were restored and re-released, which helped propel the innovative comedian back upon the pedestal beside Chaplin and Keaton where he belonged.
By Shawn Dwyer
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Director (Short)
Cast (Short)
Misc. Crew (Short)
Life Events
1905
Made stage debut in "Macbeth" with Shakespeare Repertory Company in Beatrice, Nebraska
1912
Moved to San Diego with family when father received settlement for on-the-job accident
1913
Entered films with a bit part in The Edison Company's "The Old Monk's Tale"
1915
Developed second major character, Lonesome Luke, patterned after Charlie Chaplin's 'Tramp'; Luke wore tight-fitting instead of baggy clothes; made over 100 one-reelers and numerous two-reelers in this persona
1915
Appeared in "Miss Fatty's Seaside Lovers", directed by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle for Mack Sennett's Keystone; only known title of Lloyd's films for Sennett
1917
Seized upon the gimmick of eye-glasses as an outstanding trademark, debuting The Glass Character (or 'Glasses') in September's "Over the Fence"; acted in as well as wrote and directed; sole film on which Lloyd received directing credit; continued making Lonesome Luke films until he was sure of new character's popularity
1919
While posing for a series of new publicity stills during the filming of "Haunted Spooks" (1920), a real bomb (which had got mixed in with fake explosives by mistake) blew up in his hand, resulting in the loss of the thumb and index finger on his right hand and tiny scars on his lower right cheek
1921
First feature film, "Sailor-Made Man"
1923
"Safety Last", became his most famous film because of the great stunt that had him hanging from the hands of a clock on a high-rise building
1924
First full-length film as producer, "Girl Shy"; also acted
1925
Played a college newcomer who will go to any length to be the most popular man on campus in "The Freshman"; his most successful film at the box office, it grossed over $2.5 million making it one of the biggest grossers of the Silent Era
1929
First film with sound sequences, "Welcome Danger"
1938
Retired from screen acting after "Professor Beware"
1943
A nitrate explosion in his home destroyed what in many cases was the sole extant copy of some of the Lonesome Luke films
1944
Hosted NBC radio series "Old Gold Comedy Hour"
1947
Made a curious comeback in Preston Sturges' "The Sin of Harold Diddleback"; opening sequence featured footage from "The Freshman"; re-released under the title "Mad Wednesday" in 1950
1953
Appeared as a mystery guest on "What's My Line?" (CBS)
1962
Released first compilation of silent work, "Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy", followed by "Harold Lloyd's Funny Side of Life" (1963)
1971
Will established the Harold Lloyd Foundation, to encourage the study of film
2001
Exhibition of his 3-D photographs mounted in London under the title "Double Vision"
Photo Collections
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Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
The tragic bomb blast on August 24, 1919 which cost him his two fingers required a 16-day hospitalization and also incapacitated him for seven months; he always wore a skin-toned rubber glove after that. For the balance of his life, Lloyd never publicly mentioned the loss of his fingers, despite mentioning the explosion aplenty. He did not, as was said during his lifetime, do all his own stunts (though he certainly did his share).
Lloyd produced the first compilation of his work, "Down Memory Lane", for the Masonic order of Shriners (an organization for which he served as Grand Potentate) in 1948 (no public screenings so far as known). He also compiled "Harold Lloyd's Laugh Parade" (1951) for the Shriners.
About The Glass Character: "The glasses would serve as my trade-mark and at the same time suggest the character--quiet, normal, boyish, clean, sympathetic, not impossible to romance. I would need no eccentric make-up, 'mo' or funny clothes. I would be an average recognizable American youth and let the situations take care of the comedy." --Harold Lloyd
"I never took credit for direction, although I practically directed all my own pictures. The directors were entirely dependent on me. I had these boys (i.e., Hal Roach; Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor) there because I felt they knew comedy, they knew what I wanted, they knew me and they could handle the details." --Harold Lloyd quoted in David Thomson's "A Biographical Dictionary of Film"
