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Early Life, Entry Into Films
Harold Lloyd in his most famous film, Safety Last.
Lloyd, born in Burchard, Nebraska, 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, Universal, and eventually formed a partnership with fellow struggling actor and director Hal Roach, who had formed his own studio in 1913. Lloyd became the most successful of Roach's comic actors between 1915 and 1919; during this period he slowly developed his screen character from the crude Chaplin imitation to the original and appealing "Glass Character". By 1919, Lloyd and Roach were making extensive use of test screenings of their films for preview audiences, and deleting or reshooting scenes based on the audience feedback. This technique is still used in filmmaking today.
In 1924 he formed his own independent film production company, the Harold Lloyd Film Corporation, with his films distributed by Pathe and later Paramount. Lloyd was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Marriage and Home
Lloyd married his leading lady, Mildred Davis, in February 1923. Together, they had two children: Gloria (born in 1923), and Harold jr., (born 1931, died 1971). They also adopted Peggy in 1930. Mildred died in 1969, two years before Lloyd's death.
Lloyd's fabled 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. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Retirement
After leaving acting in 1938, Lloyd produced a few Hollywood films and was active in radio, but by the 1940s he had left the film industry. He 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.
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. Lloyd also provided encouragment for a number of younger actors, including Jack Lemmon, Debbie Reynolds, and Robert Wagner.
Renewed interest
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 1920's 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 much more positively received and renewed interest in Lloyd, but more importantly helped 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, but these were poorly presented, with insensitive musical scores. Through the efforts of Kevin Brownlow and David Gill and the support of granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd, 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 restored and scored by Robert Israel. These are now frequently shown on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM). An acclaimed 1990 documentary by Brownlow and Gill was shown on PBS also created a renewed interest in Lloyd's work in the early 1990s. DVD releases of restored versions of his major films were released by New Line Cinema in November 2005, along with limited theatrical screenings in New York and other cities in the US, Canada and Europe.
Academy Award
In 1952, Lloyd received a special Academy Award for being a "master comedian and good citizen."
Death
Lloyd died at the age of 77 from prostate cancer on March 8, 1971, in Beverly Hills, California, USA. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Documentary
Lloyd was the subject of a television documentary series in 1990, Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, which followed similar acclaimed documentaries about the other great silent film clowns, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. The film was shown 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 legendary friend and partner Hal Roach, then 95 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.
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.
Lloyd was notorious for using his access to get young actresses to pose for him, and in 2004, his granddaughter Suzanne produced a book of selections from his photographs, Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D! (ISBN 1579123945).
Sony Pictures plans a remake of Safety Last for release in 2006. Talent is not yet signed, but the producers are Jennifer Dana and Mark Gordon.
Filmography
Notable short films
The Non-Stop Kid (1918)
The City Slicker (1918)
Are Crooks Dishonest? (1918)
Ring Up the Curtain (1919)
Billy Blazes, Esq. (1919)
Just Neighbors (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 (1920)
Number, Please? (1920)
Now or Never (1921)
Among Those Present (1921)
I Do (1921)
Never Weaken (1921)
Feature length films
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)
Feet First (1930)
Movie Crazy (1932)
The Cat's-Paw (1934)
The Milky Way (1936)
Professor Beware (1938)
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947)
Autobiography and Notable Biographies
An American Comedy (1928), by Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd, The King of Daredevil Comedy (1977) by Adam Riley
The Harold Lloyd Encyclopedia (2004), by Annette D'Agostino Lloyd (ISBN 0786415142)
Harold Lloyd, Master Comedian (2004), by Jeffrey Vance, Suzanne Lloyd
