Doris Lloyd was a renowned English actress with a remarkable film career spanning over four decades. Between 1920 and 1960, she appeared in more than 150 films, leaving an indelible mark on the cinematic world.
Born in 1891 in Walton, Liverpool, Lloyd came from a family with a rich cultural heritage. Her parents, Edward Franklin Lloyd and Hessy Jane McCappin, were lovingly supportive of her early forays into the world of theatre and film. Interestingly, one of her grandfathers was an amateur actor, which perhaps instilled in her a passion for the performing arts from a young age.
Lloyd's theatrical debut took place around 1914 with the Liverpool Repertory Company. She made her film debut in the crime thriller "The Shadow Between" (1920),based on a novel by Silas Kitto Hocking. This marked the beginning of a long and illustrious career in Hollywood.
In the early 1920s, Lloyd traveled to the United States to visit her sister, who had settled there. She found work as an actress and decided to make the United States her permanent home. Throughout her career, she appeared in various stage productions, including the Ziegfeld Follies and touring theaters, in addition to her numerous film roles.
Despite mostly playing minor and supporting roles, Lloyd had a few standout performances in her film career. She played the enigmatic Russian spy Mrs. Travers in "Disraeli" (1929),the charming Mrs. Cutten in "Tarzan the Ape Man" (1932),the sympathetic thief Nancy Sikes in "Oliver Twist" (1933),the school superintendent Miss Wetherby in "Tarzan and the Leopard Woman" (1946),and the "meek housekeeper" Mrs. Watchett in "The Time Machine" (1960).
In addition to her live-action roles, Lloyd also lent her voice to one of the talking roses in the animated film "Alice in Wonderland" (1951). Towards the end of her career, she had bit parts in "Mary Poppins" (1964) and "The Sound of Music" (1965),before making her final film appearance in the comedy "Rosie!" (1967).
Doris Lloyd passed away in May 1968, at the age of 76, in Santa Barbara, California. She was laid to rest in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery of Glendale. Despite her passing, her legacy continues to inspire and entertain audiences to this day.
