Biography

'Foxy' Lloyd was a failure in virtually everything he ever attempted in life. He married a domineering woman and suffered through a miserable marriage (they finally divorced in 1910; a scandalous event in those days). His work history consisted of literally dozens of careers and entrepreneurial ventures that quickly failed. In short, Foxy was a lot of talk (and how he loved to talk!), little action and virtually no follow-through. Nominally, he was employed as a sewing machine salesman for Singer and he demonstrated a glimmer of talent for creating a system of tracking down deadbeat clients. But this, along with his other so-called 'back-up trade' as a shoe salesman, were to be relied upon whenever his aspirations at other business ventures inevitably failed him. He began and failed at a multitude of businesses and get rich quick schemes that would usually fold within days. Foxy's inability to find himself left the Lloyd boys in a constant state of financial insecurity, moving around frequently across Nebraska and Colorado. Still, his sons Gaylord and, to a much greater extent, Harold, would be his greatest accomplishments. Harold was always far more attached to his father than his mother, despite Foxy's obvious shortcomings. After Foxy's divorce, a fortuitous buggy accident while working for Singer provided him with the means to go east or west. With cash in their pockets, Foxy and Harold flipped a coin and ended up in San Diego in 1913. Another one of Foxy's business ventures, a saloon/pool room, quickly failed there and they were soon reduced to living on the rent-free rooftop of an apartment building and eating day-old donuts. Foxy read about a Frank L. Baum movie being shot in conjunction with the city's Pan-American Exposition and suggested Harold (who had a limited amount of amateur acting experience in grade school) go see if he could 'get work in the flickers.' Harold had a fateful encounter with Hal Roach on the movie set, which built (albeit very slowly, Harold spent years laboring in Roach's low budget one-reel comedies beginning in 1915) into one of the most successful--- if not altogether the friendliest--- associations in silent film history. Once Harold became nominally established as an actor, Foxy rejoined him, happily hitching his wagon to his son's ascending star. Harold's rise to stardom accelerated exponentially when he gave up his 'Lonesome Luke' persona (an even earlier character was 'Will E. Work') in favor of his 'glasses' character in 1917. As Harold's popularity grew he expanded into 2-reel comedies beginning in 1920. Foxy was enlisted by Harold to become his archiver, a function that he performed with particular enthusiasm. Foxy maintained dozens of scrapbooks detailing every aspect of his son's career, which reached dizzying heights by the mid-1920s. In late 1921, Harold starred in his first feature-length comedy, A Sailor-Made Man (1921); the 40-minute film grew out of an originally-planned 2-reeler and earned an astonishing $485,000. Correctly sensing features as the pot of gold, Harold abandoned shorts and from 1921-30, everything he starred in was a hit. Arguably second only to Chaplin, Harold's films were at least as popular and he was far more prodigious, earning him at least $1.5 million per feature throughout the decade. Just prior to leaving Hal Roach, he started the privately held Harold Lloyd Corporation and Foxy was a equal shareholder (his ex-wife was not, although Harold provided for her across as much distance as possible). Foxy's no-less important secondary responsibility was to inscribe fan mail correspondence and fulfill (and autograph) Harold's publicity photos (nearly all inscribed photos of Harold prior to 1936 were actually signed by Foxy or occasionally another assistant, Roy Brooks). He performed these duties diligently until he retired to Palm Springs in 1936. Foxy outlived his son Gaylord (who also became an actor, but with little talent) and died in Los Angeles in 1947.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jack Backstreet

Father of Harold Lloyd & Gaylord Lloyd.

Great grandfather of Suzanne Lloyd Hayes.

Grandfather of Harold Lloyd Jr., Gloria Lloyd Roberts, and Peggy Lloyd

Father-in-law of Mildred Davis

The vast majority of his son's autographs (through 1936, at Foxy's retirement) were actually signed by Foxy. H.L. deliberately tried to avoid signing autographs due to losing his thumb and forefinger in a prop bomb explosion in 1919 (he was very self-conscious of the injury in public), along with the fact that his penmanship, despite the injury, was poor. Original pre-1936 H.L. signatures tend to exist only on personal correspondence to his wife Mildred and earlier to his girlfriend/co-star Bebe Daniels and differ greatly from Foxy's which are impressively florid. H.L.'s penmanship improved over time and became more open to signing items after WWII, but since his popularity had declined, fewer examples exist.