The Silent Type: Harold Lloyd

Each month, Visual Film Diary profiles the lives of five actors, directors, producers, and/or major players in film history to chronicle foremost contributions to cinema. This month we will be profiling five men who rose to legendary status during the silent film period and helped to define key aspects of performance, cinematic technique, and modern celebrity that are still celebrated today. Join us for the third installment of our July theme, The Silent Type.

If it hasn't become clear by now, every other actor profiled this season was a major player in either the comedic or melodramatic sphere of the Silent Era. Today we will be focusing on a man whose contributions to film drew from both the daring physical feats of silent comedy as well as from the dramatic, exaggerated pathos of silent melodrama. Although never quite living up to the legendary status of his contemporaries, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin (who will be the last actor we profile this season), Harold Lloyd was the most financially successful comedic actor of the 1920s, and by all means the most prolific. Today he is best remembered as the fellow dangling from a clock facade on the highest story of a building, one of the most enduring images of cinema; however, Lloyd's contributions to film are much greater than this simple still. Lloyd's unique brand of comedy drew from a plethora of genres to create a daring, visually powerful, nail-biting form of slapstick that effortlessly anticipated modern special effects and is still imitated today.

Harold Lloyd was born on April 20th, 1893, in Burchard, Nebraska. His childhood had its ups and downs, with his father consistently failing at attempted business ventures and his mother depressed from an unhappy marriage. In 1910 his parents were granted a divorce, a rare occurrence at the time, and young Harold moved with his father to San Diego. Life in California was initially about as prosperous as it had been in Nebraska- Lloyd's father became involved in an ill-fated pool hall business and Harold found himself struggling to pick up jobs as an extra in stage productions. He had been involved in theatre from an early age, fitting into the dramatic scene thanks to his physical agility and charisma. Lloyd was also fascinated by photography and film, and worked for a time as an extra for Thomas Edison's motion picture company.

In 1913, at the age of 20, Lloyd moved to Los Angeles where he began taking roles in Keystone comedies. It was here that he met the aspiring filmmaker Hal Roach; the two instantly became friends and made plans to collaborate on feature film projects together. With his inheritance money Roach was able to start his own production studio, and the two men soon began creating characters and short films. Roach and Lloyd first garnered some success with the creation of the "Lonesome Luke" character, a thinly-veiled Chaplin impersonator played by Lloyd. Although the imitation was popular, Lloyd and Roach chose to retire the character, realizing that it was a dead end. In its place, the two created the character Lloyd is best known for today.

Simply known as "Glass" or "Harold," Lloyd's most enduring persona was created simply by putting a straw hat and a pair of rounded, oversized glasses onto the young actor, who was considered far and away too handsome to be considered a comedian without the proper disguise. Unlike Chaplin's Little Tramp, Glass was never relegated to poverty and never kept a unique persona independent of the film; he would always change to fit the demands of a film's plot. Glass was, however, consistent in his attempts to find success with unwavering optimism and confidence, possibly an unconscious nod to Lloyd's own father and his constant get-rich-quick schemes. Lloyd's Glass became an audience favorite for his ability to narrowly escape doom, whether it be certain death in slapstick routines (many of which were achieved with trick shots), punishment from the police, or any number of other problematic situations.

However, Lloyd proved to be not nearly as invincible in real life. In 1919, during a promotional photo shoot, Lloyd decided to pose with what he assumed to be a prop bomb on set, lighting a cigarette with the fuse as a gag. The bomb was not a prop and exploded, severely injuring Lloyd and several photographers and members of the crew. Lloyd miraculously retained his eyesight and suffered minimal burns to his face and neck, but lost the index finger and thumb on his right hand. In subsequent films Lloyd wore a prosthetic glove to mask his disability, but was plagued by the effects of the explosion for the rest of his life.

Despite getting off to a rocky start, Lloyd and Roach became immensely successful and popular in the 1920s. Lloyd was far and away the most financially successful actor of the decade, and Roach became a vastly influential comedy producer and the creator of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. In addition to being successful, Lloyd was also prolific and efficient in his filmmaking- in 1916 alone he starred in 32 films. By the 1920s he had slowed down to making about five films a year, outnumbering contemporaries like Chaplin by about four films. In total, Lloyd starred in eighteen full-length feature films from 1921 to his last film in 1950, with eleven of those being silent films. To put this in perspective, Charlie Chaplin only appeared in eight full length films from 1923 to 1952. Although Lloyd's films are not considered to be masterpieces like Chaplin's work, they don't lack in quality or innovation, and certain images, like the famous clock scene from 1923's Safety Last remain iconic today.

Like many of his contemporaries, Lloyd was rediscovered in the 1960s by French critics who sought to break away from the popular notions of silent film's inferiority popularized during the Golden Age of Hollywood films. However, unlike the films of Chaplin and Keaton, Lloyd's films were much more difficult to re-popularize, due to difficulties from Lloyd himself. Not only did Lloyd put a hefty price tag on television rights to his films, refusing any network that wouldn't pay his $300,000 for two screenings on cable (no one ever did), but he also refused to allow his films to be screened without an organ score accompanying them, arguing that he hated piano scores and never intended his silent films to be watched with them. Because of these difficulties, Lloyd's films never reached the level of accessibility and, subsequently, interest that Chaplin and Keaton's films would achieve with later generations.

However, if Lloyd cared that his films were largely forgotten by younger generations, he didn't much discuss it. Retiring from film in 1950 after finding moderate success in talking motion pictures, Lloyd dedicated the rest of his life to Freemasonry, radio work, and charity and civic responsibilities. He was dedicated to his position on the publicity committee of the Shriner's Hospital for Crippled Children, inspired by his own physical disability. Unlike Chaplin, he remained popular in Hollywood in the decades following his film career, accepting an Honorary Academy Award in 1953, and unlike Buster Keaton, he never descended into crippling alcoholism and debt. However, these perceived successes can be viewed without rose-colored glasses; many claim that the reason for Lloyd's success in Hollywood during the 50s was his cooperation with the Hollywood blacklist, and his financial success can be attributed to his stinginess and unwillingness to make his films easily available to the public. Still, by all means Harold Lloyd lived a successful life and died rich and happy in his Hollywood mansion in 1971.

Lloyd remained free of sensationalized scandals during his life, only marrying once (to his frequent early co-star Mildred Davis) and never falling into public scrapes with drug or alcohol addiction. He was generally apolitical and did not advocate strongly for causes outside of charity work, although he did openly support his gay son. Many have suggested that Lloyd was never a natural comedian, just a gifted actor and physical performer, and that in person he was quiet and polite, never the witty trickster he embodied on film.

In my opinion, Lloyd contributed significantly to silent film in two ways. First of all, he was the cutest star of the silent comedy scene. Maybe this isn't a really important cinematic contribution, but look at him! I think an argument can be made that Lloyd was able to distance himself from the obvious, unflattering disguise employed by Chaplin and the "Old Stone Face" used by Buster Keaton and just be an attractive comedian (because really, if he thinks those glasses are fooling anyone, he's wrong). Secondly, Lloyd was a pioneer in creating the comedic "thrill sequence," blending comedy with daredevil action that significantly influenced and undoubtedly paved the way for the blockbuster action-comedies of contemporary times. Lloyd was the first handsome leading man who could be funny, daring, and perform impossible stunts that would leave audiences on the edge of their seats. Although he is not as well remembered today as his contemporaries, for reasons that may or may not have been his own fault, Harold Lloyd's contributions to comedy and action films do not go unnoticed today, and for that we honor him.

Join us next week as we take a look at the life of a very different film star of the silent era- a man who, like Rudolph Valentino, was beloved by film audiences and suffered an untimely, tragic death, all the while living in the shadow of his much more famous female co-star.