John Loder

Biography

A tall, debonair, immaculately-groomed British leading man best known for his pipe-smoking chaps, actor John Loder (ne John Muir Lowe), the son of a British general, first served in Gallipoli in WWI and was a German prisoner of war at one point. Upon his release he actually stayed there in order to run a pickle factory. An interest in acting developed during this period and he showed up in a few German film bits before returning briefly to England. Talkies had become the new rage in the late 1920s and Loder tried his luck in Hollywood. He appeared in The Doctor's Secret (1929), which was Paramount's first talking picture, and although the "veddy British" actor seemed to show promise, his persona was a bit too cut and dried for American tastes. Gaining little ground as a leading man there, Loder eventually returned to England to embellish his resumé and did so with plush, princely co-leads in musicals and intrigue such as Love, Life & Laughter (1934) and Sabotage (1936). When WWII hit England, Loder returned to America where he fell immediately into "B" movie roles playing various aristocrats and other stuffed shirts in support. He also appeared on Broadway. Two of his five wives were actresses: French star Micheline Cheirel and Hollywood goddess Hedy Lamarr. In the late 1950s he married his fifth wife, Argentinian heiress Alba Larden, and eventually he semi-retired to her ranch. He penned an autobiography in 1977 entitled "Hollywood Hussar" and died in 1988 at age 90.