Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American
actor, comedian, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and stunt
performer who is most famous for his silent comedy films.
Harold Lloyd in 1924
Harold Lloyd ranks alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of the most popular and influential film comedians of the silent film era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and "talkies", between 1914 and 1947. He is best known for his bespectacled "Glasses" character, a resourceful, success-seeking go-getter who was perfectly in tune with 1920s-eraUnited States
His films frequently contained "thrill sequences" of extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats, for which he is best remembered today. Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in Safety Last! (1923) is one of the most enduring images in all of cinema. Lloyd did many of these dangerous stunts himself, despite having injured himself in August 1919 while doing publicity pictures for the Roach studio. An accident with a bomb mistaken as a prop resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand (the injury was disguised on future films with the use of a special prosthetic glove, though the glove often did not go unnoticed).
Although Lloyd's individual films were not as commercially successful as Chaplin's on average, he was far more prolific (releasing twelve feature films in the 1920s while Chaplin released just four), and made more money overall ($15.7 million to Chaplin's $10.5 million).
Harold Lloyd in 1924
Harold Lloyd ranks alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of the most popular and influential film comedians of the silent film era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and "talkies", between 1914 and 1947. He is best known for his bespectacled "Glasses" character, a resourceful, success-seeking go-getter who was perfectly in tune with 1920s-era
His films frequently contained "thrill sequences" of extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats, for which he is best remembered today. Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in Safety Last! (1923) is one of the most enduring images in all of cinema. Lloyd did many of these dangerous stunts himself, despite having injured himself in August 1919 while doing publicity pictures for the Roach studio. An accident with a bomb mistaken as a prop resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand (the injury was disguised on future films with the use of a special prosthetic glove, though the glove often did not go unnoticed).
Although Lloyd's individual films were not as commercially successful as Chaplin's on average, he was far more prolific (releasing twelve feature films in the 1920s while Chaplin released just four), and made more money overall ($15.7 million to Chaplin's $10.5 million).
An acclaimed 1990
documentary, Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius by Brownlow and Gill, which
was shown as part of the PBS series American Masters, created a renewed
interest in Lloyd's work but the films were largely unavailable. In 2002, the
Harold Lloyd Trust re-launched Harold Lloyd with the publication of the book Harold
Lloyd: Master Comedian by Jeffrey Vance and Suzanne Lloyd and a series of
feature films and short subjects called “The Harold Lloyd Classic Comedies”
produced by Jeffrey Vance and executive produced by Suzanne Lloyd for Harold
Lloyd Entertainment. The new cable television and home video versions of
Lloyd's great silent features and many shorts were remastered with new
orchestral scores by Robert Israel. These versions are frequently shown on the Turner
Classic Movies (TCM) cable channel. A DVD collection of these restored or
remastered versions of his feature films and important short subjects was
released by New Line Cinema in partnership with the Harold Lloyd Trust in 2005,
along with theatrical screenings in the US, Canada, and Europe. Criterion
Collection has subsequently acquired the home video rights to the Lloyd
library, and have released Safety Last! and The Freshman.
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