Everyone knows Charlie Chaplin, but during Hollywood’s silent film era, Harold Lloyd was one of the highest-grossing film stars around. Then somehow, it all went up in smoke. Maybe it was his horrific accident, or maybe it was his dirty little secret...
1. His Childhood Wasn’t Funny
Harold Lloyd was born in 1893 in Burchard, Nebraska to a hapless entertainer and hopeless housewife. Because of his father’s string of disastrous business failures, Lloyd didn’t inherit much from his parents except, perhaps, a flair for the comedic. Sadly, there wasn’t much room for laughter before he became famous.
2. He Chose His Father Over His Mother
Lloyd’s mother grew tired of her husband’s failed get-rich-quick schemes and decided to tear the family apart. It led to an agonizing decision. Lloyd chose to stay with his father while his brother stayed with their mother. In the midst of his parents’ divorce, Lloyd found comfort performing on the stage.
But life soon delivered Lloyd an unexpected twist.
3. His Father Had A Big Accident
When Harold was still young and trying to scrape by with his father, a terrifying accident occurred. A delivery truck ran over the elder Lloyd, and for a moment everyone must have held their breath. Only, this was actually the best thing to ever happen to Harold's father: He sued and secured “a small fortune” in the settlement.
From there, things changed drastically.
4. He Flipped A Coin And Changed His Life
After this windfall, Harold and his father decided they need to make a new start, and they flipped a coin to show them where to go. When it came up "tails," which mean "Go West," they dutifully packed their things and moved to California, where Harold got to work at Thomas Edison's film company.
But if Lloyd had silver screen dreams, they didn't exactly pan out that way at the beginning.
5. He Was A Master Of Disguise
Lloyd, now in his 20s, went to see about getting work at Universal studios. When he did, he met with a disgruntled gatekeeper, a "crabby old soul" who delighted in keeping Lloyd off the property. So, to get past him, Lloyd came up with an ingenious idea. He bought a makeup kit, ducked behind a billboard, and snuck into the studios under disguise with a gaggle of extras.
It was exactly the kind of antic that would make him famous—and that fame was about to explode.
6. He Had A Bromance
Long before Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, there was Harold Lloyd and Hal Roach. Much like Lloyd, Roach was a Hollywood hopeful, and he was in search of talent to direct. Together, they teamed up to make one-reel short comedies, inventing a Charlie Chaplin-inspired character called "Lonesome Luke".
Right away, audiences warmed to Lloyd’s clownish comedy act. And all that success meant he wouldn’t be lonesome for long.
7. He Had A Leading Lady
Despite their success, early on in the “Lonesome Luke” movies Lloyd and Roach realized that something was missing: a leading lady. So, the intrepid filmmakers put out a casting call and found Lonesome Luke’s perfect match in the teenaged Bebe Daniels. Despite her youth, Daniels was a pro and the two had excellent chemistry. But there was other trouble brewing.
8. He Was Just A Cheap Chaplin
At the rate they were making the Lonesome Luke films, Lloyd started to grow tired of the character, even if audiences still wanted more. He felt that his talents were wasted on a Charlie Chaplin rip-off. There was one big problem. With the money still rolling in, Lloyd was afraid that the studio would just replace him in the role.
Hat in hand, Lloyd went to Roach to tell him he wanted out of Luke. Roach's response surprised him.
9. He Was Always Optimistic
To his shock, when Lloyd told Roach that he wanted to do something new, Roach agreed. Accordingly, the two began to phase out Lonesome Luke, and Lloyd got to work developing a new type of comedic character. This new persona was an optimistic youth who constantly bumbled his way through hilarious situations. There was, however, a bizarre snag.
10. He Was Too Good-Looking
At first, no one truly believed Lloyd’s new character because Lloyd himself was just too handsome to be so hapless. Then the comic made one small change that would define his career. In true hipster fashion, he put on a pair of lensless, horn-rimmed glasses. Thus was born the character “Harold”.
Audiences related to his optimism and fell madly in love with the new character. And so did someone else.
11. He Fell For His Co-Star
While working with Roach and Lloyd, Bebe Daniels had matured into a beautiful young lady. And even though “Luke” might have been lonesome, Lloyd was definitely not. He affectionately described Daniels as “a dark, dewy, big-eyed child” and the two sparked up a romance. It quickly caught fire.
12. He Got A Cute Nickname
Lloyd’s new “glasses” character, Harold, struck a chord with the light-hearted youth of the early 1920s, and Bebe Daniels was the picture of flapper insouciance. Together, they were so popular that their fans knew them only as “The Boy” and “The Girl”. But they couldn’t stay innocent forever.
13. He Danced The Night Away
Lloyd and Daniels grabbed headlines in early Hollywood as they went all about town, entering dance competitions. Their chemistry worked just as well on the dance floor as it did on the screen...but the good times didn't last. In her heart of hearts, Daniels wanted to be a dramatic actress, and Lloyd only had laughs to offer her. It quickly turned sour.
14. He Didn’t Pay Up
As Daniels’ talents in front of the camera grew, so too did her demands. Pretty soon, she was butting heads with Lloyd and Roach about her roles in the wildly popular Harold shorts. When she decided not to perform one day because of a previous argument, the reaction was brutal. Roach simply didn't send her a pay check.
This couldn't last forever...and it didn't.
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15. His Girlfriend Left Him
According to one version of events, around this time Daniels was attending a party when famed director Cecil B DeMille came up and asked if she'd like to work for him in a dramatic role, something she had always wanted. Daniels, however, initially turned him down, saying she wouldn't pursue it until her contract with Lloyd and Roach was up in a year.
Like clockwork, though, a year later she was gone, her relationship with Lloyd fizzling in her absence. Simple story, right? Only, the truth is much more complicated.
16. He Had Trouble In Paradise
Film historians have noted that this turn of events, where Daniels was loyal to Lloyd and only went to DeMille when her contract is up, seems a little too good to be true, especially given the previous tensions on set. They suggest a darker story. They believe that Daniels and Lloyd were in the process of breaking up before she left, making her exit that much quicker.
And why they broke up is eye-opening.
17. He Had Bad Taste In Women
Of course, it's perfectly possible that Lloyd and Daniels' romance just ran its course. But some believe that Lloyd, who preferred his women to look and act like "big-eyed" dolls, was starting to get a little tired of and intimidated by Daniels' ambitions and her self-confidence. Yeah, yuck. But, well, karma was coming.
18. His Stunts Caught Up With Him
Lloyd, full of his own ambitions, insisted on doing many of his stunts himself—even the most dangerous ones. For years, he had avoided injury and defied death on every one of his film sets. In late August of 1919, however, when he was posing for some photographs, his perilous lifestyle caught up with him.
19. He Was Explosive
While posing for promotional photographs at the Witzel Photography Studio in Los Angeles, Lloyd made a nearly fatal mistake. With his dominant right hand, he picked up what he thought was just a prop explosive and lit the fuse. As the comedian continued posing for the camera, the fuse continued burning down until… “Boom!”
When the dust settled, no one could believe the result.
20. He Lit Himself On Fire
As it turns out, the “prop” was no prop at all. The explosive detonated right as Lloyd was holding it up near his face. Stunned by the unexpected blast, Lloyd soon realized he sustained burns to his face and chest, and had injured his eye so badly that he was temporarily blind. Unfortunately, that was far from all.
21. He Lost His Hand
This hadn't even been a real stunt—it was only a photo session, after all—and yet its consequences were terrifying. In addition to the burns and eye injury, the accident blew off Lloyd's right index finger and his thumb.
The blast had been so big, in fact, it’s a miracle that Lloyd survived at all. Both the photographer and prop director, standing a little ways back, even sustained serious injuries. Now Lloyd had to deal with the fallout.
22. He Thought His Career Was Over
In the immediate hours and days following the mishap, Lloyd’s future hung in the balance. There was a good chance that this one unexpected and unpredictable accident would end his still-growing acting career. “I thought I would surely be so disabled that I would never be able to work again,” he recalled. However, he received encouragement from a surprising place.
23. He Got A Heartwarming Card
In the wake of Lloyd's accident at the studio, he got a "Get Well" card in the mail. The contents were heartwarming. It was from his old co-star and lover Bebe Daniels, and she had addressed it to "The Boy" and signed it "The Girl". Perhaps this gave Lloyd the courage he needed, because he came up with a solution to his woes.
24. He Had A Special Glove
Lloyd had always been something of a master of makeup and disguise, and he now had to do the same with his halfway blown-off hand. For the rest of his career, Lloyd appeared on screen with a skin-colored prosthetic glove that recreated his index finger, thumb, and partial palm. But then he made double sure no one would know his secret.
25. He Had A Good Side
After 1919, Lloyd was always careful when making films and posing for pictures. Oftentimes, he would conceal his right hand behind his back and make prominent use of his left hand. And when he posed for pictures, he always made sure that camera caught his left side—his good side.
With his career back on track, he was just missing one thing.
26. He Found A New Leading Lady
After Daniels’ sudden departure, Lloyd was in the market for a new leading lady to act alongside him in his comedies. Playing the role of the casting director, Roach suggested that Lloyd check out the films of the little-known actress Mildred Davis. Lloyd's reaction was...very telling.
27. He Liked Dolls
Not only did Lloyd think Davis would be perfect as his new co-star, he was also extremely attracted to her. His reasons, however, were more than a bit creepy. According to Lloyd, he liked Davis because she looked like a “a big French doll”. Yes, Lloyd liked big-eyed, innocent-looking beauties, and they quickly started a romance. They started a lot more, too.
28. He Was More Popular Than Ever
Lloyd and Davis picked up right where Lloyd and Daniels had left off. The new “Boy” and “Girl” duo appeared in more than a dozen Harold shorts accompanied, of course, by Lloyd’s awkward prosthetic. But the changes did nothing to dampen Lloyd’s popularity, and his career took off to new heights. So did his personal life.
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29. He Married His Co-Star
In 1923, Lloyd and Davis tied the knot, becoming one of the only Hollywood couples to remain married for life. They went on to have three children together, two girls and a boy. Yes, it all sounds like a fairy tale on the outside...but on the inside, it was a stifling nightmare.
30. He Forced His Wife To Stay Home
By the time Lloyd married Davis, they had starred in 15 popular films together. But the minute they married, he made a huge demand. He insisted that Davis retire from acting so that she could be a better homemaker for him. Like I said: He liked dolls, and he liked them on the shelf. This had a heartbreaking end.
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31. He Ruined Her Career
In her heart, Davis always wanted to return to the screen, but Lloyd always refused to let her. After years of bickering and pleading, Lloyd finally relented and allowed his wife to appear in the 1927 film Too Many Crooks. By then, however, it was too late. Davis’ star had faded, and she never again appeared in another film.
32. He Put Safety Last!
Even after the explosive accident that claimed most of his right hand, Lloyd insisted on doing most of his stunts himself, whatever the consequences might be. That was perhaps most apparent on the set of the appropriately named 1923 film Safety Last!, now his most famous film.
In it, Lloyd risked life and limb again for one iconic shot in Hollywood history.
33. He Was Hanging On For Dear Life
The image of Lloyd hanging precariously from a clock face high above the ground has become a defining image of the silent era. And thank goodness there was no sound, because Lloyd was probably screaming his head off. Although they used a bit of trick angle and a facade to get the shot, Lloyd still had to hang precariously.
To help with any accidents, the film’s crew set up a mattress on a small platform between Lloyd and the ground. They soon found out, though, that this wasn't nearly good enough.
34. He Could Have Hit The Pavement
Prior to filming the scene, Lloyd decided to test the safety setup. With great anticipation, he threw a dummy from the rooftop onto the mattress. The results were horrifying. Instead of landing safely there, the dummy simply bounced off the mattress and fell to its doom on the street below.
Fortunately, Lloyd managed to hold on with all eight of his good fingers long enough to get the shot. Or...did he?
35. He Tricked Audiences For Years
Lloyd’s stunts were definitely impressive. But, as it turns out, he had some help along the way. In the 1980s, decades after the film came out, a stuntman came forward with a shocking revelation. While the opening titles to Safety Last! often proclaimed that Lloyd did all his own stunts in the film, this wasn't strictly true.
The stuntman confessed that for many of the long-distance shots, it was him, not Lloyd, climbing up the building in Safety Last!. But this wasn't the only part of Lloyd's legacy that was about to take a hit.
36. He Built His Own Castle
In the mid-1920s, everything was going Lloyd’s way. He had his wife Mildred and more fame than he could handle. All that was missing was his own castle. So, he built one. In 1929, Lloyd and Davis moved in to Greenacres, a sprawling 15-acre Beverly Hills estate.
The property became a favorite hangout for Hollywood’s most elite, as well as a repository for Lloyd's personal collection of his films. And then came one of the most infamous events of the 20th century.
37. He Fell Into A Great Depression
Just when it seemed like everything was coming up Harold Lloyd, his fortunes took a turn for the worse. With the onset of the Great Depression, Lloyd’s carefree and optimistic comedies lost their resonance with moviegoing audiences. Slowly, his once bright star began to diminish...and so did his personal life.
38. His Legacy Went Up In Flames
In 1943, Lloyd's whole life went up in flames. Quite literally. One day, the immense catalogue of films Lloyd kept in his personal vault at Greenacres suddenly caught fire.The ensuing inferno threatened to destroy millions of dollars worth of film and a significant portion of Lloyd’s legacy. Lloyd's reaction was reckless.
39. He Nearly Killed Himself
In an attempt to put out the blaze and save his movies, Lloyd rushed to the film vault doors. However, the nitrates from the film reels created a toxic gas that overwhelmed seven firemen, and threatened to engulf the now middle-aged comedian completely. In front of his vault doors, he lost consciousness.
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40. His Wife Saved His Life
In the heat of the moment—pun intended—Lloyd's wife Mildred Davis rushed to his aid. She pulled the unconscious Lloyd away from the inferno before it could destroy him. Sadly, while she managed to save Lloyd, she was unable to save the films, and many of his reels went up in smoke that day.
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41. He Came Out Of Retirement
Lloyd had more or less retired from the filmmaking business in the midst of the Great Depression, so everyone was surprised in 1947 when he agreed to appear in The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, a loose homage to his Jazz Era acting career. Except it was a disaster from the word "go".
42. He Was A Diva On Set
From the very beginning, Lloyd butted heads with the film’s director, Preston Sturges. The two had intense disagreements over the script, which Lloyd thought Sturges had rushed through production. But creative differences between himself and the film’s director were the least of his concerns.The film nearly cost him the rest of his right hand.
43. A Lion Bit Him
In one of the scenes, Lloyd’s character is meant to pet a lion named Jackie. While it would have been reasonable for Lloyd to ask for a stunt double, in true daredevil fashion, he opted to do the scene himself. But, in his retirement, he had clearly “lost his touch”.
When he went in to pet the lion, it snapped at him, biting his right hand. Everyone waited breathlessly to survey the damage.
44. He Refused To Do More Stunts
Thankfully, Lloyd's previous accident with the "prop" bomb was actually what saved him this time. When the lion snapped at the veteran actor, it only managed to graze his prosthetic fingers. It was enough to scare him to his core, though: Lloyd refused to pet the lion again on- or off-screen, and his terror of the animal throughout the film was real.
Yet when it was time for the film to come out, Lloyd realized his troubles had only just begun.
45. He Hated Howard Hughes
Audiences met Lloyd’s emergence from retirement with a collective shrug, and The Sin of Harold Diddlebock was a flop, leading its producer Howard Hughes to quickly shelve it. Then he added insult to injury. In 1951, Hughes released a greatly edited version of the film, now called Mad Wednesday. When Lloyd found out, he went on the attack.
46. He Sued His Producer
Lloyd was used to being a cinema darling just for being himself, and he did not take kindly to the idea that anything he'd done needed significant edits. He was so angry, he sued Hughes for the damage this caused to his reputation "as an outstanding motion picture star and personality".
Lloyd eventually accepted a $30,000 settlement. However, he should have been more concerned about the damage he was doing at home.
47. His Son Needed His Approval
For the Lloyd family, Greenacres became a place of secrets. One of the biggest secrets contained within the seemingly peaceful grounds was the romantic life of his only son, Harold Lloyd Jr, who was gay. According to author Tom Dardis, Lloyd Sr was relatively accepting of his son's preferences, though he did blame himself, feeling his long absences as a father contributed to the boy's sexuality. But that wasn't all.
48. He Lost His Son
Lloyd Jr struggled with his bedroom tastes his entire life, and this wasn't helped by the younger man's penchant for choosing particularly violent lovers. Reportedly, it wasn't an uncommon scene for Lloyd Jr to stumble into Greenacres “battered and bruised” from his latest love. Sadly, he got no happy ending.
Ultimately, a severe stroke in 1965 hobbled Lloyd Jr for the rest of his life, leaving his father to pick up the pieces. Still, there were more secrets.
49. He Carried On A Secret Life
Even though they remained “happily” married for decades, Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis led a different life behind the closed doors of Greenacres. Years after they passed, family members confessed the dark truth. They revealed that Lloyd had carried on numerous affairs throughout their marriage.
The tabloids likely never got the details because Davis never spilled the beans, standing by her man. Then again, Lloyd had an even more scandalous obsession—one few knew about.
50. He Was A Dirty Old Man
After his semi-retirement, Lloyd took up a dirty new hobby: He liked to photograph famous women, often without their clothes, using 3-D technology. Yes, it's as sleazy as it sounds.
While he did it under the auspices of art, Lloyd still took thousands of risque, pop-out photographs of the curves of thousands of beautiful women, among them Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, for his personal collection. The New York Times called his work "cheesecake frosted in come-hither".
51. He Lost It All Quickly
Much like his film career, Lloyd’s personal life and legacy came to an abrupt and unceremonious end. Certainly not one befitting a star of his magnitude. In August 1969, his wife Davis passed the age of 68. Just two short years later, Lloyd also passed, followed by his son just months after that.
