Harold Lloyd

Born: 20 April 1893, Burchard, Nebraska, USA
Died: 08 March 1971, Beverly Hills, Calafornia, USA

One of the most iconic images in silent film history is of Harold Lloyd, hanging for dear life, on a clock face far up the side of a high-rise building. Lloyd, along with Chaplin and Keaton, made up the triumvirate of solo stars who defined that comedy era. In fact, he made more films than the other two combined and his success made him one of the richest men in Hollywood.
Lloyd, unlike many of his contemporaries, had no vaudevillian training. He became interested in theater at college and went to L.A. in search of work as an extra in films. It was there that he met Hal Roach, who would become a lifelong friend. When Roach set up his studios, Lloyd was the first actor he called. Together, they created a character called Lonesome Luke. Although dressed in tight cloths as opposed to Chaplin's baggy style, Lonesome Luke was little more than homage to the Tramp, albeit in a more knock about manner. The character became very popular and Lloyd made over 60 films as him before retiring the character.
Lloyd began working on a new character, and created the glasses man - this new persona was a clean-cut American everyman, with distinctive horn-rimmed glasses. Audiences loved the optimism that this character brought and the sense of triumph in the face of adversity, even more than the Lonesome Luke shorts. Success followed success and all was good for Lloyd until, during a publicity session, a prop bomb exploded in his hand and blew off his thumb and most of his index finger. While he recuperated, the studios devised a flesh covered glove with a prosthetic thumb which he wore for the rest of his career. Lloyd was famous for his thrill films, where he would perform physical stunts, such as the clock scene in "Safety Last". These stunts can be viewed as all the more remarkable as many were filmed after the accident.
Lloyd was involved in all aspects of the film making and developed the idea of previewing films to live audiences to gauge if they needed to be edited before general release. He pioneered feature film comedies with "Grandmas Boy" in 1922, which showed that comedies could develop characters alongside funny routines and gags. He often worked without scripts but this changed with the advent of sound. Indeed, like many others, sound would be a turning point for Lloyd and while he made several talkie features, he couldn't recreate the success that he had during the silent days.
Thanks to shrewd investments he was a very wealthy man and retired to a happy family life. He took up photography and took 3-d photographs of many of the stars of the day, including Marilyn Monroe and Bob Hope. In 1953 he received an Honorary Oscar, for being "master comedian and good citizen" - in the year Chaplin's exile from America began. Lloyd lived to see a renewed interest in his work from a new generation thanks to the T.V. compilation "Harold Lloyds World of Comedy".
He rightly takes his place along with the other 2 greats in cinematic history... Hurray for Harold Lloyd!