Lloyd Benedict Nolan (August 11, 1902 – September 27, 1985) was an American
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Nolan was born in
San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer. He began his career on stage and was subsequently lured to Hollywood, where he played mainly doctors, detectives, and police officers in many movie roles.
He was a brother to the
Delta Kappa EpsilonDelta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who, upon hearing that some but not all of them had been invited to join the two existing societies , instead elected to form their own fraternity...
fraternity (Sigma Rho chapter).
Although many critics hailed his acting ability and it was generally acknowledged that he never gave a bad performance, Nolan was relegated to B movies for the most part.
Lloyd Benedict Nolan (August 11, 1902 – September 27, 1985) was an American
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Biography
Nolan was born in
San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer. He began his career on stage and was subsequently lured to Hollywood, where he played mainly doctors, detectives, and police officers in many movie roles.
He was a brother to the
Delta Kappa EpsilonDelta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who, upon hearing that some but not all of them had been invited to join the two existing societies , instead elected to form their own fraternity...
fraternity (Sigma Rho chapter).
Film career
Although many critics hailed his acting ability and it was generally acknowledged that he never gave a bad performance, Nolan was relegated to B movies for the most part. Yet even so, he costarred with such actresses as
Mae WestMae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol.Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry...
,
Dorothy McGuire-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Eventually, she succeeded on Broadway, first appearing as an understudy to Martha Scott in Our Town, and subsequently starring in the domestic comedy, Claudia.Brought to Hollywood by producer...
, and the former Metropolitan Opera soprano,
Gladys SwarthoutGladys Swarthout was an American contralto opera singer.-Career:While studying at the Bush Conservatory of Music in Chicago, a group of friends arranged an audition for her with the Chicago Civic Opera Company...
. Under contract to
ParamountParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
and
20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation , also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox, is one of the six major American film studios...
studios, he assayed starring roles in the late 30s and early-to-mid 40s and appeared as the lead character of the "Michael Shayne" detective series. Oddly, the first screen version of
Raymond ChandlerRaymond Thornton Chandler was an Anglo-American novelist and screenwriter who had an immense stylistic influence upon the modern private detective story, especially in the style of the writing and the attitudes now characteristic of the genre...
's novel
The High WindowThe High Window is a 1942 novel written by Raymond Chandler. It is his third novel to feature Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe.-Plot introduction:...
was transformed in 1942 from a
Philip MarlowePhilip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared, under that name, in The Big Sleep, published in 1939...
adventure into part of the
Michael ShayneMichael Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday. It was the title of a series of 12 films starring Lloyd Nolan, a radio series under a variety of names, between 1944 and 1953, and later in 1960-1961, a 32 episode NBC television series...
series starring Nolan as Shayne. The film was
remadeA remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
five years later as
The Brasher DoubloonThe Brasher Doubloon is a film noir based on the novel The High Window by Raymond Chandler....
with
George MontgomeryGeorge Montgomery was an American painter, sculptor, furniture craftsman, and stuntman who is best known as an actor in western style film and television....
as Marlowe.
The majority of Nolan's films comprised light entertainment with an emphasis on action. His most famous films include:
Atlantic Adventure, costarring
Nancy CarrollNancy Carroll was an American actress.-Career:Christened Ann Veronica Lahiff in New York City, she began her acting career in Broadway musicals. She became a successful talkies actress because her musical background enabled her to play in the movie musicals of the 1930s...
;
Ebb Tide;
Wells Fargo;
Every Day's A Holiday, starring
Mae WestMae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol.Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry...
;
Bataan; and
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, with
Dorothy McGuire-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Eventually, she succeeded on Broadway, first appearing as an understudy to Martha Scott in Our Town, and subsequently starring in the domestic comedy, Claudia.Brought to Hollywood by producer...
and
James DunnJames Howard Dunn was an American Academy Award-winning film actor.-Biography:Born in New York, New York, of Irish descent, Dunn was the son of a Wall Street stockbroker who, according to Dunn, "either had a million or nothing." Dunn started his entertainment career in vaudeville before...
. He also gave a strong performance in the 1957 film
Peyton PlacePeyton Place is a 1957 American drama film directed by Mark Robson. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes is based on the bestselling 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.-Synopsis:...
with
Lana TurnerLana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
.
Nolan subsequently contributed many solid and key character parts in numerous other films. One of these films,
The House on 92nd Street, was a startling anomaly to audiences in 1945. It was a conflation of several true incidents of attempted sabotage, which the FBI was able to thwart during World War II, and many scenes were filmed on location in New York City - an unusual occurrence at the time. Nolan portrayed FBI agent Briggs, a role to be repeated in the subsequent movie,
The Street with No Name. Both of these movies were highly regarded at the time as semi-documentary film noir exemplars, although contemporary audiences may today offer a contrarian opinion. Also noteworthy were numerous scenes in which actual FBI employees interacted with Nolan and were featured elsewhere throughout the former film.
Other Endeavors
Later in his career, he returned to the stage and appeared on TV to great acclaim in
The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, for which he received an Emmy award for portraying
Captain QueegLieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg, USN, is a fictional character in Herman Wouk's 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny. He is also a character in the identically titled 1954 film adaptation of the novel and in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, the Broadway theatre adaptation of the novel that opened...
, the role made famous by
Humphrey BogartHumphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor.After trying various jobs, Bogart began acting in 1921 and became a regular in Broadway productions in the 1920s and 1930s. When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogart turned to film...
. Nolan also made guest appearances in television shows including
The Bing Crosby ShowThe Bing Crosby Show is a 28-episode television situation comedy starring crooner, film star, iconic phenomenon, and businessman Bing Crosby and actress Beverly Garland as a middle-aged couple, Bing and Ellie Collins, rearing two teenaged daughters during the early 1960s...
, a sitcom on
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
and the
EmmyThe Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards , Grammy Awards and Tony Awards .They are presented in various...
-winning
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
anthology series
The Barbara Stanwyck ShowThe Barbara Stanwyck Show was a lavishly-produced anthology drama television series which ran on NBC in 1960 and 1961. Barbara Stanwyck served as hostess, and starred in all but four of the half-hour productions. The four she did not star in were actually pilot episodes of potential programs which...
. He appeared in the NBC
westernThe Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became the Western United States , but also in Western Canada, Mexico , Alaska The Western...
BonanzaBonanza is an American television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons, it is among the longest running Western television series and continues to air in syndication....
as LaDuke, a New Orleans detective. In 1967, he and
Strother MartinStrother Martin was an American actor in numerous films and television programs. Martin is perhaps best known as the prison "captain" in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, where he uttered the line, "What we've got here is failure to communicate."-Early life:Martin was born in Kokomo, Indiana...
guest starred in the episode "A Mighty Hunter Before the Lord" of NBC's
The Road WestThe Road West is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from September 12, 1966 to May 1, 1967 for twenty-nine episodes with rebroadcasts continuing until August 28. The hour-long series, sponsored by Kraft Foods, aired in the 9 p.m...
series starring
Barry SullivanBarry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, the seventh son of a seventh son, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...
. Nolan co-starred in the pioneering NBC series
JuliaJulia is an American sitcom best remembered as being one of the first weekly series to depict an African American woman in a non-stereotypical role. Previous television series featured African American lead characters, but the characters were usually servants...
, with
Diahann Carroll-Early years:Carroll was born Carol Diahann Johnson in The Bronx, New York, to John Johnson and Mabel Faulk. Her family moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City when she was an infant...
, who became the first African American to star in her own television series outside of the role of a domestic worker.
He founded the Jay Nolan Autistic Center (now known as Jay Nolan Community Services) in honor of his son Jay who had
autismAutism is a disorder of neural development that is characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism involves many parts of the brain; how this occurs is not well understood...
and was chairman of the annual Save Autistic Children Telethon.
Nolan died of
lung cancerLung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs. The vast majority of primary lung cancers are carcinomas of the lung, derived from epithelial cells...
in
Los AngelesLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
, at the age of eighty-three.
Filmography
- G Men
G Men is a Warner Bros. film starring James Cagney and Ann Dvorak that is based on the mythologized origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. The film's significance is less in its cinematic merits than as a propaganda effort in the FBI's "war on crime" in the middle...
(1935)
- Stolen Harmony
Stolen Harmony is a 1935 film about a saxophone-player/dancer who joins a Big Band upon his release from jail. The movie climaxes with an exciting car chase and was directed by Alfred L...
(1935)
- Atlantic Adventure (1935)
- She Couldn't Take It
She Couldn't Take It is a 1935 comedy film made by Columbia Pictures, directed by Tay Garnett, written by C. Graham Baker, Gene Towne and Oliver H.P...
(1935)
- 15 Maiden Lane
15 Maiden Lane is a 1936 American crime film about an insurance investigator who infiltrates a gang planning to steal jewels from the eponymous building on Maiden Lane in the Fulton Street District of Manhattan. The neighborhood had been the center of New York City's Diamond District since 1931...
(1936)
- Internes Can't Take Money
Internes Can't Take Money released in the UK as You Can't Take Money, is a drama film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea. McCrea portrayed Dr. Kildare in the character's first screen appearance. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer continued the Dr...
(1937)
- Ebb Tide (1937)
- Every Day's a Holiday (1937)
- Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Co. is a diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the US by assets and the third largest bank by market cap. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit card...
(1937)
- King of Alcatraz
King of Alcatraz is a 1938 drama film directed by Robert Florey and starring Gail Patrick. -Cast:* Gail Patrick - Dale Borden* Lloyd Nolan - Raymond Grayson* Harry Carey - Captain Glennan* J...
(1938)
- Dangerous to Know
Dangerous to Know is a 1938 crime film starring Anna May Wong, Akim Tamiroff, Gail Patrick, Lloyd Nolan, and Anthony Quinn. The movie was directed by Robert Florey...
(1938)
- St. Louis Blues
St. Louis Blues is a 1939 musical film directed by Raoul Walsh that was set on a Mississippi River showboat. Although the plot was not related to the song, the "St. Louis Blues" was sung as one of the numbers. Artists included jazz singer Maxine Sullivan and composer/singer/actor Hoagy Carmichael...
(1939)
- The House Across the Bay
The House Across the Bay is a film directed by Archie Mayo, produced by Walter Wanger, written by Myles Connolly and Kathryn Scola, and released by United Artists. It is about a singer who waits for an imprisoned gangster to be released from Alcatraz...
(1940)
- Johnny Apollo
Johnny Apollo is a 1940 crime film starring Tyrone Power as a man who resorts to crime to buy a pardon for his embezzler father . Lloyd Nolan plays the gangster he works for, while Dorothy Lamour portrays the boss's girlfriend....
(1940)
- The Man I Married
The Man I Married is a 1940 drama film starring Joan Bennett and Francis Lederer. An American woman marries a German, only to lose him to the Nazi Party when the couple travel to Germany.-Cast:...
(1940)
- Blues In The Night
"Blues in the Night" is a popular song which has become a pop standard and can certainly be considered part of the Great American Songbook. The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun with the working title Hot Nocturne, but finally released as Blues in...
(1941)
- Dressed to Kill
Dressed to Kill is a 1941 crime mystery starring Lloyd Nolan, Mary Beth Hughes & Sheila Ryan. The film was based on Death Takes No Bows, a mystery novel by Brett Halliday.- Plot :...
(1941)
- Time to Kill
Time to Kill is the first screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel The High Window, which was remade five years later as The Brasher Doubloon. The detective was changed from Philip Marlowe to Michael Shayne for this version, with Lloyd Nolan playing the part and Heather Angel in a rare turn...
(1942) as Michael ShayneMichael Shayne is a fictional private detective character created during the late 1930s by writer Brett Halliday. It was the title of a series of 12 films starring Lloyd Nolan, a radio series under a variety of names, between 1944 and 1953, and later in 1960-1961, a 32 episode NBC television series...
- The Man Who Wouldn't Die
The Man Who Wouldn't Die is the title of a 1994 TV film starring Roger Moore and Malcolm McDowell, as well as a 1942 film starring Lloyd Nolan as series detective Michael Shayne, based on a novel by Clayton Rawson.-References:* at MSN...
(1942)
- Guadalcanal Diary
Guadalcanal Diary may refer to:*Guadalcanal Diary , a memoir of war correspondent Richard Tregaskis*Guadalcanal Diary , a 1943 20th Century Fox film adaptation of the book...
[1943]
- Bataan (1943)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a 1945 film, the first film directed by Greek-American director Elia Kazan, starring James Dunn , Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, and Peggy Ann Garner....
(1945)
- The House on 92nd Street
The House on 92nd Street is a 1945 black-and-white film in the film noir genre. The movie was shot mainly in New York City. The film was directed by Henry Hathaway and won screenwriter Charles G. Booth an Academy Award for the best original motion picture story...
(1945) as Agent George A. Briggs
- Two Smart People
-Cast:* Lucille Ball - Ricki Woodner* John Hodiak - Ace Connors* Lloyd Nolan - Bob Simms* Hugo Haas - Seïnor Rodriquez, Dept. of Agriculture* Lenore Ulric - Maria Ynez, Inn of the 4 Winds* Elisha Cook Jr. - Fly Feletti* Lloyd Corrigan - Dwight Chadwick...
(1946)
- Somewhere in the Night
Somewhere in the Night is a psychological thriller, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and released in 1946. It was Mankiewicz's first film for 20th Century Fox, and his third film overall.-Synopsis:...
(1946)
- Lady in the Lake
Lady in the Lake is a film noir drama that marked the directorial debut of actor Robert Montgomery who also starred in the film...
(1947)
- Green Grass of Wyoming
Green Grass of Wyoming is a 1948 film starring Peggy Cummins and Charles Coburn. The filming of the movie was mainly done in Lancaster, Ohio at the Fairfield County Fairgrounds.-Cast :*Peggy Cummins ... Carey Greenway...
(1948)
- The Street with No Name
The Street with No Name is a black-and-white film noir. The movie, a follow up to The House on 92nd Street , tells the story of an undercover FBI agent, Gene Cordell , who infiltrates a deadly crime gang. Cordell's superior, FBI Inspector George A. Briggs also appears in The House on 92nd Street...
(1948) as Insp. George A. Briggs
- The Sun Comes Up
The Sun Comes Up is a 1949 MGM Lassie picture. Set in the rural south of the United States, a bereaved war widow learns to put aside her bitterness and grief as she grows to love a young orphan boy and his dog...
(1949)
- Easy Living
Easy Living is a drama film directed by renowned horror and film noir director Jacques Tourneur, starring Victor Mature, Lizabeth Scott and Lucille Ball...
(1949)
- The Lemon Drop Kid
The Lemon Drop Kid is a 1951 comedy film based on the short story by writer Damon Runyon. The black-and-white movie stars Bob Hope. The Christmas song "Silver Bells," sung by Hope and Marilyn Maxwell, was introduced in the film. The film was directed by Sidney Lanfield and Frank Tashlin...
(1951)
- Crazylegs (1953)
- Island in the Sky
Island in The Sky is an aviation adventure/drama film written by Ernest K. Gann based on his novel of the same name, directed by William A. Wellman, and starring and co-produced by John Wayne. It was released by Warner Bros...
(1953)
- The Last Hunt
The Last Hunt is a 1956 MGM western film directed by Richard Brooks and produced by Dore Schary. The screenplay was by Richard Brooks from a novel by Milton Lott...
(1956)
- Toward the Unknown
Toward the Unknown is a 1956 movie about the dawn of supersonic flight filmed on location at Edwards Air Force Base. Starring William Holden, Lloyd Nolan and Virginia Leith, the film features the screen debut of James Garner. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and written by Beirne Lay, Jr.The film...
(1956)
- A Hatful of Rain
A Hatful of Rain is a 1957 dramatic film. It stars Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa, Lloyd Nolan and Henry Silva.The movie was adapted by Michael V. Gazzo, Alfred Hayes and Carl Foreman from the play by Gazzo. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann and features a strong musical score by...
(1957)
- Seven Waves Away
Seven Waves Away is a 1957 British drama film starring Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, and Stephen Boyd. When his ship goes down, an officer has to make an agonizing decision on his overcrowded lifeboat...
(1957)
- Peyton Place
Peyton Place is a 1957 American drama film directed by Mark Robson. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes is based on the bestselling 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.-Synopsis:...
(1957) as Dr. Swain
- Portrait in Black
Portrait in Black is a thriller released by Universal International. Produced by Ross Hunter, who also produced Airport and other films for Universal, the film starred Lana Turner and Anthony Quinn...
(1960)
- The Girl Hunters (1962)
- We Joined The Navy (1962)
- Circus World
Circus World, also known as Samuel Bronston's Circus World, is a 1964 drama film made by the independent production company Samuel Bronston Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Samuel Bronston, with Michal Waszynski as executive producer...
(1964)
- Ice Station Zebra
Ice Station Zebra is a 1968 action film directed by John Sturges, starring Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine and Jim Brown. The screenplay by Alistair MacLean, Douglas Heyes, Harry Julian Fink and W.R. Burnett is loosely based upon MacLean's 1963 novel of the same name. Both have...
(1968)
- Airport
Airport is a 1970 film based on the 1968 Arthur Hailey novel of the same name. This film, which earned over $100,000,000 at the box office at a time when achieving that milestone was rare, focuses on an airport manager trying to keep his airport open during a snowstorm, while a suicidal bomber...
(1970)
- Earthquake
Earthquake is a 1974 American disaster film that achieved huge box-office success, continuing the disaster film genre of the 1970s where recognizable all-star casts attempt to survive life or death situations...
(1974)
- Hannah and Her Sisters
Hannah and Her Sisters is a 1986 comedy-drama film which tells the intertwined stories of an extended family, told over two years that begin and end with a family Thanksgiving dinner...
(1986)
External links