Frank William George Lloyd (2 February 1886 – 10 August 1960) was a Scottish-American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was its president from 1934 to 1935.

He is Scotland's first Academy Award winner and is unique in film history, having received three Oscar nominations in 1929 for his work on a silent film (The Divine Lady), a part-talkie (Weary River) and a full talkie (Drag). He won for The Divine Lady. He was nominated and won again in 1933 for his adaptation of Noël Coward's Cavalcade and received a further Best Director nomination in 1935 for perhaps his most successful film, Mutiny on the Bounty.

In 1957, he was awarded the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. In 1960, Lloyd received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion pictures industry, at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard.

Early life and career

Lloyd was born in Cambuslang, on the outskirts of Glasgow, the youngest of seven children. His mother Jane was Scottish and his father Edmund Lloyd was Welsh, a mechanical engineer. The show wound up in Los Angeles in 1913 and Lloyd decided to stay there and act in Hollywood films.

Film director

Paramount

He began directing shorts for Paramount and moved to longer running films: The Gentleman from Indiana (1915), Jane (1915), The Reform Candidate (1916), The Tongues of Men (1916), The Call of the Cumberlands (1916), Madame la Presidente (1916) with Anna Held, The Code of Marcia Gray (1916), David Garrick (1916 film) (1916), The Making of Maddalena (1916), An International Marriage (1916), and The Stronger Love (1916). The Intrigue (1916) was produced through Pallas Films and released through Paramount. Lloyd's biographer argued his early films "are not 'masterpieces,' but they are on a par with films from other secondary directors of the period. In other words, they are not comparable to those directed by D.W. Griffith, but are as good as those directed by Allan Dwan."

For Howard Hughes, Lloyd did The Age for Love (1931). Back at Fox he made A Passport to Hell (1932) then Cavalcade (1933), which won Lloyd the Oscar for Best Director.

Lloyd then made what was his favourite film, Berkeley Square (1933), starring Leslie Howard, followed by Hoop-La (1933) the final film of Clara Bow and Servants' Entrance (1934) with Janet Gaynor. If I Were King (1938) with Colman and Rulers of the Sea (1938) with Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, which was a commercial disappointment.

Universal

Lloyd made The Howards of Virginia (1940) at Columbia with Cary Grant. At Universal he set up his own company. He directed This Woman Is Mine (1941), and The Lady from Cheyenne (1941), and his company produced Saboteur (1942) from Alfred Hitchcock, The Spoilers (1942) with John Wayne and Randolph Scott, and Invisible Agent (1942).

He was one of several directors on RKO's Forever and a Day (1943). Lloyd had a big hit with James Cagney's Blood on the Sun (1945). He was Oscar nominated for Best Director of a Documentary with The Last Bomb (1945). Lloyd also served in the air force. He retired from filmmaking in 1946, intending to live on a ranch. When he remarried in 1955 he retired again.

Selected filmography

thumb|Frank Lloyd holding his first [[Academy Award for Best Director, winning for The Divine Lady (1928).]]

  • Damon and Pythias (1914) (actor)
  • The Test (1914) (actor) (short)
  • The Spy (1914) (actor)
  • The Opened Shutters (1914) (actor)
  • The Black Box (1915) (actor)
  • The Gentleman from Indiana (1915)
  • Jane (1915)
  • The Reform Candidate (1915)
  • Sins of Her Parent (1916)
  • The Tongues of Men (1916)
  • The Code of Marcia Gray (1916)
  • The Intrigue (1916)
  • David Garrick (1916)
  • The Call of the Cumberlands (1916)
  • Madame la Presidente (1916)
  • The Making of Maddalena (1916)
  • An International Marriage (1916)
  • The Stronger Love (1916)
  • Sins of Her Parent (1916)
  • The World and the Woman (1916)
  • A Tale of Two Cities (1917)
  • The Kingdom of Love (1917)
  • The Heart of a Lion (1917)
  • Les Miserables (1917)
  • When a Man Sees Red (1917)
  • American Methods (1917)
  • The Price of Silence (1917)
  • The Rainbow Trail (1918)
  • For Freedom (1918)
  • Riders of the Purple Sage (1918)
  • The Blindness of Divorce (1918)
  • The Loves of Letty (1919)
  • The World and Its Woman (1919)
  • Pitfalls of a Big City (1919)
  • The Man Hunter (1919)
  • Madame X (1920)
  • The Silver Horde (1920)
  • The Woman in Room 13 (1920)
  • The Great Lover (1920)
  • The Invisible Power (1921)
  • The Grim Comedian (1921)
  • The Man from Lost River (1921)
  • Roads of Destiny (1921)
  • Oliver Twist (1922)
  • The Eternal Flame (1922)
  • The Sin Flood (1922)
  • Black Oxen (1923)
  • The Voice from the Minaret (1923)
  • Within the Law (1923)
  • Ashes of Vengeance (1923)
  • The Sea Hawk (1924)
  • The Silent Watcher (1924)
  • Her Husband's Secret (1925)
  • The Splendid Road (1925)
  • Winds of Chance (1925)
  • The Wise Guy (1926)
  • The Eagle of the Sea (1926)
  • Children of Divorce (1927)
  • Adoration (1928)
  • The Divine Lady (1929)
  • Young Nowheres (1929)
  • Weary River (1929)
  • Drag (1929)
  • Dark Streets (1929)
  • The Lash (1930)
  • The Way of All Men (1930)
  • The Age for Love (1931)
  • East Lynne (1931)
  • A Passport to Hell (1932)
  • Cavalcade (1933)
  • Berkeley Square (1933)
  • Hoop-La (1933)
  • Servants' Entrance (1934)
  • Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
  • Under Two Flags (1936)
  • Wells Fargo (1937)
  • Maid of Salem (1937)
  • If I Were King (1938)
  • Rulers of the Sea (1939)
  • The Howards of Virginia (1940)
  • This Woman is Mine (1941)
  • The Lady from Cheyenne (1941)
  • The Spoilers (1942) (producer)
  • Forever and a Day (1943)
  • Blood on the Sun (1945)
  • The Shanghai Story (1954)
  • The Last Command (1955)

See also

  • List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain

References

  • Frank Lloyd Films website, includes additional biographical information