Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr.
1893 - 1971
Lloyd was born in Burchard, Nebraska. In 1910, after several failed businesses belonging to his father, his parents
divorced. Lloyd's father moved with him to San Diego, California.
Once in California, Lloyd who had already been acting, got a job in the fledgling film industry. In 1912, he got
a job working for the Thomas Edison motion picture company. He also got jobs in Keystone comedies. The following
year Lloyd and his friend, filmmaker Hal Roach, began collaborating. The two men opened their own studio and
begin making films.
In 1914, Lloyd had hired Bebe Daniels to be his leading lady. The two developed a relationship which ended in 1919
when Daniels went to seek more dramatic roles. To replace Daniels, the same year, Lloyd hired Mildred Davis. A
relationship sparked between them leading to marriage. The couple had two children and adopt a third. They remained
married the rest of their lives.
By 1918, Lloyd and Roach had begun developing an ongoing character for Lloyd to portray in movies. The character
Lloyd referred to as his "Glass" character. The "Glass" character appeared in many films
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr.
1893 - 1971
including the silent film Safety Last! which is still on the American Film Institutes top 100 most thrilling
movies.
On August 24, 1919, while posing for some promotional still photographs in the Los Angeles Witzel Photography Studio,
he picked up what he thought was a prop
bomb and lit it with a cigarette. It exploded and mangled his right hand,
causing him to lose a thumb and forefinger. The blast was severe enough that the cameraman and prop director nearby
were also seriously injured. Lloyd was in the act of lighting a cigarette from the fuse of the bomb when it exploded,
also badly burning his face and chest and injuring his eye. Despite the proximity of the blast to his face, he
retained his sight. As he recalled in 1930, "I thought I would surely be so disabled that I would never be able
to work again. I didn't suppose that I would have one five hundredth of what I have now. Still I thought,
'Life is worth while. Just to be alive.' I still think so."
In 1924, Lloyd and Roach went their separate ways. Lloyd continued to make film films throughout the 1920's. His
successful films made him a wealthy man. His film Welcome Danger came out two weeks before the start of the Great
Depression. Despite the timing it was a huge financial success. It was also in 1924 when Lloyd helped found the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Through the 1930's Lloyd's popularity waned. By 1937, Lloyd had sold his movie lot in California and had
largely retired from film making. It wasn't until 1947 when Lloyd starred in another big picture which was
named The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. The film was a homage to Lloyd's career and used footage from his previous
films in the movie. Howard Hughes who was one of the producers shelfed the film after a limited release. In 1951,
Hughes had the film recut and released it as Mad Wednesday. Lloyd hated the film and sued Hughes, RKO Radio
Pictures and the California Corporation for damages to his reputation as an actor. Lloyd won the suit and received
$30,000.
In 1953, Lloyd received a special Academy Award. The award was for being a "master comedian and good citizen".
The "good citizen" was meant as a snub to Charlie Chaplin who at the time had run a foul of McCarthyism
and his visa allowing him to enter the county had been revoked.
Lloyd remained involved in a number of other interests, including civic and charity work. Inspired by having
overcome his own serious injuries and burns, in 1925 Lloyd was raised a Master Mason in Alexander Hamilton Lodge
No. 535 in Hollywood, California and was very active as a Freemason. After his Third Degree, with his usual
thoroughness and energy, he proceeded through both the York and Scottish Rites, and then joined Al Malaikah
Shrine in Los Angeles. He took his Royal Arch Degree with his father. In 1926, he became a 32° Scottish Rite
Mason in the Valley of Los Angeles, California.
As his movie work began to decline, he replaced it with ever increasing activity in Masonry, especially the Shrine
and with the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children. He became Potentate of the Los Angeles Temple in 1939. By
the time he had stopped making movies altogether in 1949, he was elected as Imperial Potentate of the Shriners
of North America for the year 1949‐50, the first actor ever to be so recognized. He was installed into this
prestigious position at Soldier Field in Chicago in the presence of a crowd of 90,000 including the then
President of the United States and fellow Shriner, Ill. Harry S. Truman, 33°.
In recognition of his services to the nation and Freemasonry, Lloyd was invested with the Rank and Decoration
of Knight Commander Court of Honour in 1955 and coroneted an Inspector General Honorary, 33°, in 1965.
Ill Sir Lloyd passed away on March 8th, 1971 due to prostate cancer.