One of the most influential film comedians of the silent era, Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and talkies, between 1914 and 1947.
48 Facts About Harold Lloyd
2.
Harold Lloyd's bespectacled "glasses character" was a resourceful, ambitious go-getter who matched the zeitgeist of the 1920s-era United States.
3.
Harold Lloyd performed lesser stunts himself, despite having injured himself in August 1919 while doing publicity pictures for the Roach studio.
4.
Harold Lloyd was born on April 20,1893, in Burchard, Nebraska, the son of James Darsie Harold Lloyd and Sarah Elisabeth Fraser.
5.
In 1910, after his father had several business venture failures, Harold Lloyd's parents divorced and his father moved with his son to San Diego, California, where he attended San Diego High School.
6.
Harold Lloyd became interested in theater as a child, and worked in repertory companies.
7.
Harold Lloyd often experimented with makeup, to disguise his youthful appearance.
8.
Harold Lloyd worked with Thomas Edison's motion picture company, and his first role was a small part as a Yaqui Indian in the production of The Old Monk's Tale.
9.
At the age of 20, Harold Lloyd moved to Los Angeles, and took juvenile roles in several Keystone Film Company comedies.
10.
Harold Lloyd tried to find work at the Universal studio, but "the gatekeeper was a crabby old soul who let me understand that it would be a great pleasure to keep me out", as Lloyd recalled in his 1928 memoir.
11.
Harold Lloyd began collaborating with Roach, who had formed his own studio in 1913.
12.
Roach and Harold Lloyd created "Lonesome Luke", a comic character inspired by the success of Charlie Chaplin.
13.
Luke was a comic grotesque with loud clothes and a false moustache, similar to many early screen comics, but the young Harold Lloyd gave the character great energy and enthusiasm.
14.
Harold Lloyd's antics won a popular following, and his one-reel, 10-minute comedies were soon expanded to two-reel, 20-minute comedies.
15.
Harold Lloyd envisioned an entirely new character, not a costumed clown but an everyday young man in street clothes who faced comic situations with resourcefulness.
16.
Harold Lloyd thought that Roach's distributor, Pathe, would resist the new character because the Lonesome Luke films were proven moneymakers, and the company didn't want to lose that revenue.
17.
Harold Lloyd was a kid that you would meet next door, across the street, but at the same time I could still do all the crazy things that we did before, but you believed them.
18.
Unlike most silent comedy personae, "Harold Lloyd" was never typecast to a social class, but he was always striving for success and recognition.
19.
Later that year, Harold Lloyd replaced Daniels with Mildred Davis, whom he would later marry.
20.
Harold Lloyd was tipped off by Roach to watch Davis in a movie.
21.
Reportedly, the more Harold Lloyd watched Davis the more he liked her.
22.
Harold Lloyd was in the act of lighting a cigarette from the fuse of the bomb when it exploded, badly burning his face and chest and injuring his eye.
23.
In 1929 Harold Lloyd had completed the silent feature Welcome Danger, but talking pictures had become a sensation.
24.
Harold Lloyd decided to remake the entire film with sound, using a new, stage-trained supporting cast for the dialogue exchanges.
25.
Harold Lloyd produced a few comedies for RKO Radio Pictures in the early 1940s, including Lucille Ball's A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob in 1941, but otherwise retired from the screen until 1947.
26.
Harold Lloyd returned for an additional starring appearance in The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, an ill-fated homage to Lloyd's career, directed by Preston Sturges and financed by Howard Hughes.
27.
Diddlebock opened with footage from The Freshman and Harold Lloyd was sufficiently youthful-looking to match the older scenes quite well.
28.
In October 1944, Harold Lloyd emerged as the director and host of The Old Gold Comedy Theater, an NBC radio anthology series, after Preston Sturges, who had turned the job down, recommended him for it.
29.
Harold Lloyd remained involved in a number of other interests, including civic and charity work.
30.
Harold Lloyd 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 on July 6,1958.
31.
Harold Lloyd studied colors and microscopy, and was very involved with photography, including 3D photography and color film experiments.
32.
Harold Lloyd became known for his nude photographs of models, such as Bettie Page and stripper Dixie Evans, for a number of men's magazines.
33.
Harold Lloyd took photos of Marilyn Monroe lounging at his pool in a bathing suit, which were published after her death.
34.
Lloyd provided encouragement and support for a number of younger actors, such as Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, and particularly Jack Lemmon, whom Harold declared as his own choice to play him in a movie of his life and work.
35.
Harold Lloyd kept copyright control of most of his films and re-released them infrequently after his retirement.
36.
The first film was premiered at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival, where Harold Lloyd was feted as a major rediscovery.
37.
The renewed interest in Harold Lloyd helped restore his status among film historians.
38.
Harold Lloyd married leading lady Mildred Davis on February 10,1923, in Los Angeles, California.
39.
Harold Lloyd later relented but by that time her career momentum was lost.
40.
In 1925, at the height of his movie career, Harold Lloyd became a Freemason at the Alexander Hamilton Lodge No 535 of Hollywood, advancing quickly through both the York Rite and Scottish Rite, and then joined Al Malaikah Shrine in Los Angeles.
41.
Harold Lloyd took the degrees of the Royal Arch with his father.
42.
Harold Lloyd was vested with the Rank and Decoration of Knight Commander Court of Honor and eventually with the Inspector General Honorary, 33rd degree.
43.
Harold Lloyd himself was saved by his wife, who dragged him to safety outdoors after he collapsed at the door of the film vault.
44.
Harold Lloyd died of prostate cancer on March 8,1971, at the age of 77, in his Greenacres home in Beverly Hills, California.
45.
Harold Lloyd was interred in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
46.
In 1953, Harold Lloyd received an Academy Honorary Award for being a "master comedian and good citizen".
47.
Regardless of the political overtones, Harold Lloyd accepted the award in good spirit.
48.
Harold Lloyd was honored in 1960 for his contribution to motion pictures with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1503 Vine Street.