Harold Lloyd

His home, "GreenAcres" has 44 rooms, 26 bathrooms, 12 fountains, 12 gardens and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

A 1919 accident with a prop bomb, which turned out to be a live bomb, cost him the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. In subsequent films, he wore a glove and prosthetic device to hide it. Remarkably, he was able to do many of his gags (he employed a stunt man for serious stunts) convincingly afterward.

He was the visual inspiration for the original illustrations of the superhero Superman/Clark Kent (created in 1938). Lloyd was 45 years old at the time, and he was modeled for the Clark Kents identity (Supermans identity was modeled after Douglas Fairbanks ). Lloyds "Glasses character" was the inspiration because like that character, Lloyd found that he could hide his identity simply by taking off the glasses.

Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Great Mausoleum, Begonia Corridor.

According to the book, "The History Of Pulitzer Prize Winning Plays", Lloyd was originally slated to play the lead role of Elwood P. Dowd in Mary Chase s Broadway stage play "Harvey". Lloyd turned the part down, and it then went to Frank Fay.

Pictured on one of ten 29 US commemorative postage stamps celebrating stars of the silent screen, issued 27 April 1994. Designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld , this set of stamps also honored Rudolph Valentino , Clara Bow , Charles Chaplin , Lon Chaney , John Gilbert , Zasu Pitts , Theda Bara , Buster Keaton , and Keystone Kops.

Was immortalized in "Futurama" episode S03E08: Thats Lobstertainment. In this episode we find out that Dr. Zoidberg has an uncle who was a silent actor, Harold Zoid.

Aside from two talking films, The Milky Way & The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (AKA "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock"), all films from 1922 through Grandmas Boy , were owned by Lloyd. Many of the pre-1920 shorts were lost in a nitrate explosion in his film vault in 1943 and are now considered lost. A limited number of films rights were sold to Time-Life in 1998, and released on VHS format. The estate rejected offers to release them to DVD up until 2005, when they accepted an offer from New Line (some have also been restored and shown periodically on TCM). His films are set to be released on DVD somewhere in the next two years (The two talking films are in the public domain, and all films before 1922 are owned by KINO having passed from Pathe and Roach)

He is the great-great uncle of Casper Van Dien and Grace Van Dien.

He adopted daughter Peggy Lloyd in 1929, when she was five years old.

Father of Harold Lloyd Jr. and Gloria Lloyd Roberts.

Brother of Gaylord Lloyd.

Son of J. Darcie Foxy Lloyd and Elisabeth Fraser Lloyd.

Grandfather of Suzanne Lloyd Hayes.

After Lloyds career as an actor deserted him in 1938, he immersed - some would say drowned - himself into one hobby after another. While he bred Great Danes and collected cars earlier in life, he would later indulge himself in marathon movie nights several times each week, and become rabidly interested in photography (which allowed himself intimate contact with innumerable models) and later, in hi-fidelity sound systems. He placed standing orders for the entire catalogs of several record companies, amassing an enormous record collection.

His actual autographs prior to 1936 are quite rare. His father, J. Darcie Foxy Lloyd , was given the job as the official fan mail correspondent within the Harold Lloyd Corporation. Foxys signature is easy to recognize - its right out of the 19th century and quite florid. HLs signature is much plainer and common. His father retired to Palm Springs in 1936. HL found it impossible to dodge autograph seekers when he began whirlwind movie/bowling nights around Los Angeles as his acting career wound down about the same time. Real pre-1936 autographs exist mainly on contracts and extremely personal correspondence to Bebe Daniels.

Head of jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1960.

Parts of Westworld were shot at his estate, GreenAcres. He had expressed a desire to see his home preserved in some capacity related to his career, but his will strangely neglected any funding for the enormous estate. His heirs briefly opened it as a tourist attraction (and filming location) but this failed to generate adequate income and it was later sold.

Sam Taylor was the most important director for him.

Was once one of the 10 richest entertainers in the world.

Lloyd was extremely superstitious. His daily routines were dictated by his superstitions: he maintained that certain streets were unlucky and his chauffeurs were instructed to avoid them. He would habitually enter and exit rooms from the same doors and dress and undress in precise reverse order.

While never credited as a writer through his entire career, Lloyd was in fact the driving force behind all of his movies, from Grandmas Boy throughout the silent era. He came up with most of the stories and gags and structured them together with his team.

His hobbies included 3-D photography. He took hundreds of stereo images of Hollywood stars such as Marilyn Monroe , John Wayne , Sterling Holloway , Richard Burton and Roy Rogers. Many of these photos are reproduced in the book "3-D Hollywood: Photography by Harold Lloyd", which was edited by his granddaughter, Suzanni Lloyd Hayes, and comes with a 3-D viewer.

He and his wife Mildred Davis are mentioned twice in the Drake Bell song "End it Good" off of his 2006 album "Its Only Time".

Great-uncle of Bentley Mitchum (Robert Mitchum s grandson).

A famous story about Lloyd concerns he and composer Gaylord Carter regarding the scoring of Lloyds film Safety Last! ) for a re-release in the Lloyd He was present during the recording session; during the sequence from the film in which he is scaling the side of a building, he loses his grip and catches hold of the hands of an enormous clock. During this moment, Carter at the organ swung into the song "Time on My Hands", which prompted Lloyd to give Carter a mock stern glance and declare, "Gaylord, ILL do the jokes!".

Before moving into his famous home Greenacres in 1928, Lloyd and his wife lived at 502 South Irving Boulevard in Los Angeles, just south of Hollywood. The house still exists. Before that, up until shortly after his marriage in 1923, Lloyd lived in a large two-story house on Hoover Street.

He was a staunch Republican and conservative.

Merian Cooper rented several of Lloyds purebred Great Danes for the hunt sequence of "The Most Dangerous Game" when he realized the leopards called for in the script werent practical (even for him). He dyed the dogs hair black to make them look more ferocious.

His home was used as the exterior of Jack Woltzs (John Marley ) home in The Godfather .

Unlike many other stars of the silent era Lloyd was known for his financial acumen. Despite his many expensive hobbies and the essential death of his film career after the advent of talkies in the late 1920s he would still leave an inheritance of $12 million dollars upon his death in 1971.

Following his death the Harold Lloyd Estate (also know as Greenacres) in Los Angeles became a popular filming location for Hollywood, appearing in features such as The Godfather , Westworld , Beverley Hill Cop and Commando. One of Lloyds many superstitions was that it was extremely unlucky to travel around the ornamental fountain at the front of the house (and he only ever did so once, in his hearse on the way to his funeral). In all four films characters travel around the same fountain only to suffer a violent death afterwards.

Comedy comes from inside. It comes from your face. It comes from your,body.

I do not believe the public will want spoken comedy. Motion pictures and,the spoken arts are two distinct arts.

[in 1970] My humor was never cruel or cynical. I just took life and,poked fun at it. We made it so it could be understood the world over,without language barriers. We seem to have conquered the time barrier,too.

[on his horn-rimmed glasses] At a cost of 75 cents they provide a,trademark recognized instantly wherever pictures are shown.

The spectacle of a fat man slipping on an icy sidewalk never fails to,get a laugh. The same is true of a man attempting to drive a nail and,mashing his finger in the process, or a man with his arms full of,bundles attempting to keep his hat from blowing off. These things are,funny because they have happened to all of us and probably will happen,again. They are trying experiences for the individuals involved and we,sympathize with them. But we laugh, nevertheless because they are human,touches.

The more trouble you get a man into, the more comedy you get out of him.

I am just turning 40 and taking my time about it. .