Lloyd Nolan
| Lloyd Nolan | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Lloyd Benedict Nolan August 11, 1902 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Died | September 27, 1985 (aged 83) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1935–85 |
| Spouse(s) | Mell Efrid (1933-1981) (her death) 2 children Virginia Dabney (1983-1985) (his death) |
Lloyd Benedict Nolan (August 11, 1902 – September 27, 1985) was an American film and television actor. Among his many roles, Nolan is remembered for originating the roles of private investigator Michael Shayne in a series of 1940s B Movies.
Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer. His parents disapproved of his choice of a career in acting, preferring that he join his father's shoe business, "one of the most solvent commercial firms in San Francisco."
Nolan served in the United States Merchant Marine before joining the Dennis Players theatrical troupe in Cape Cod. He began his career on stage and was subsequently lured to Hollywood, where he played mainly doctors, private detectives, and policemen in many film roles. He attended Santa Clara Preparatory School and Stanford University, flunking out of Stanford as a freshman "because I never got around to attending any other class but dramatics."
He was a brother in the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Sigma Rho chapter).
Nolan's obituary in the Los Angeles Times contained the evaluation, "Nolan was to both critics and audiences the veteran actor who works often and well regardless of his material." Although Nolan's acting was often praised by critics, he was, for the most part, relegated to B pictures. Despite this, Nolan costarred with a number of well-known actresses, among them Mae West, Dorothy McGuire, and former Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Gladys Swarthout. Under contract to Paramount and 20th Century Fox studios, he assayed starring roles in the late 30s and early-to-mid 40s and appeared as the title character in the Michael Shayne detective series. Raymond Chandler's novel The High Window was adapted from a Philip Marlowe adventure for the seventh film in the Michael Shayne series, Time to Kill (1942); the film was remade five years later as The Brasher Doubloon, truer to Chandler's original story, with George Montgomery as Marlowe.
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