1897-1958
Actor Lloyd (Ellesworth) Hughes was born on this day in Bisbee, Arizona. Schooled in Los Angeles, he apparently had ambitions of becoming an actor early in life. Though today he is remembered as the "clean cut guy" in the famous 1925 stop motion animated silent The Lost World, he got his start in films in the late teens. His first role in an Ince Corp melodramatic film went uncredited; he was a "party guest" in feature length Love Me with Dorothy Dalton and Jack Holt in the lead roles (released in March of 1918). His first credited role came in the comedy Impossible Susan, released just four months later. One might be tempted to think that his appearance as "Tad Worden" in the 1919 film Satan Junior would be his first appearance in a film that could be categorized as "horror," but the film is in fact another silly comedy about a another funny young lady. But...he did in fact appear in a horror film in 1919, released just 2 1/2 months after Satan Junior, The Haunted Honeymoon--another Ince production--featured Hughes in a fully supporting role. He took the male lead in his very next film An Innocent Adventuress, a comedy, opposite Vivian Martin and released in June. He then appeared in three Fred Niblo directed films in a row; including The False Road in which he again took the male lead, this time opposite Enid Bennett. By 1921 he had obtained top billed status and worked for directors King Vidor and John Griffith Wray, as well as Niblo in this capacity. In 1922, he appeared opposite Mary Pickford in the lead in Tess of the Storm Country, an epic of a film for it's time. This made him a highly bankable actor, and lead to a number of roles in romantic dramas, but eventually fanned out into the adventure and western genres in 1924--one the busiest years in his career. Of course it is for the science fiction adventure film The Lost World that he best known. It can be called a kind of "horror movie"--more like a monster film, certainly a creature feature. Based on a late novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of all people, the film features dinosaurs and would eventually even be referenced in the much more well known King Kong in 1933, which also features dinosaurs in a "lost exotic world." In it, Hughes stars along side lovely Bessie Love and the brutish Wallace Beery (bit of trivia, the film references in a visual the film The Sea Hawk from the previous year, a film in which Hughes also appeared in the lead supporting role). After his appearance in Lost World, which featured (rare for it's time) filming in the old Biograph Studio in The Bronx "outdoor" live action scenes, Hughes went largely back to parlor romantic drama, romantic comedies and melodramas (not with-standing the odd western). He appeared along side Mary Astor, Colleen Moore, Doris Kenyon, Corinne Griffith, Delores del Rio, Mae Murray, Billie Dove and Lupe Valez. In 1929, he appeared along side Valez, Estelle Taylor and Lon Chaney in the Asian themed romantic drama Where East Is East, a partial silent featuring sound effects and a musical score (the film was set for wide enough release, that a silent version was also distributed to theaters not yet equipped for sound). His next film was the same in terms of distribution (partial sound version/silent version) and cashed in on Hughes' role in The Lost World. The Mysterious Island (October 1929) had Lionel Barrymore in the lead and was based on a Jules Verne novel. His last film appearance in the decade was also his first full sound picture; Acquitted (November 1929); a Columbia production--it was a prison drama with Hughes and Margaret Livingston in the lead role. Acquitted was filmed around the time as his next film Love Comes Along--an RKO production--and released in January of 1930; a musical, Hughes and Bebe Daniels took the top bill. Not yet done with the adventure film, Hughes was also in the supporting role in the 1930 Lloyd Bacon directed version of Moby Dick starring the other Barrymore: John. While he did successfully make the transition to sound, his career got caught up the studio financial woes of the Great Depression. He appeared in a number b-films released as double features in the 1930's, including a couple of quite spooky mysteries (A Face in the Fog is a favorite of mine), and one additional low budget adventure film: Vengeance of the Deep (1938). He retired from film acting in 1939, with Romance of the Redwoods (March 1939), a California "logging adventure" film, marking his last time in front of the camera. Hughes retired and lived in San Gabriel with his wife--actress Gloria Hope (Olive Francis Hughes)-and their two children. He passed away their on the 6th of June at the age of 60. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.
[source: AJM (Find A Grave)]
Still from The Lost World, Hughes on left.
