Biography
Early Life
He was born at 11 Herbert Crescent, Knightsbridge, London.[1] His father was General W. H. M. Lowe, the British officer to whom Patrick Pearse, the leader of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, surrendered.[2] Both were present at the surrender.[3]
He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Berkshire.
World War One
He followed his father into the army, being commissioned into 15th Hussars as a second lieutenant on 17 March 1915,[4] and then served in the Gallipoli Campaign, leaving there on 19 December that year.
On 21 April 1916 until early May, he was in Ireland, before proceeding to Rouen, France to rejoin his regiment. He was engaged in the 1916 Battle of the Somme and was taken prisoner by the Germans on 21 March 1918 at the village of Roisel. He was taken to Le Cateau gaol and then by train to the first of several prisoner-of-war camps, at Rastatt, in Baden, Germany.[5]
Upon being released, he stayed in Germany, resuming military duties on behalf of the Inter-Allied Commission in Breslau and Upper Silesia.
German Films
Leaving the cavalry he went into business with a German friend, Walter Becker, establishing a pickle factory in Potsdam. Later Loder began to develop an interest in acting, appearing in bit parts in a few German films at the Tempelhof Film Studios, employed by Alexander Korda.[6] These included Dancing Mad (1925), Madame Wants No Children (1926) (directed by Korda), The Last Waltz (1927), The White Spider (1927), The Great Unknown (1927), Alraune (1928), Fair Game (1928), When the Mother and the Daughter (1928), Casanova's Legacy (1928), The Sinner (1928) and Adam and Eve (1928).
British Films
Loder left Germany to briefly return to the United Kingdom. He had a support role in The First Born (1928) playing Madeleine Carroll's love interest.
He then left on the SS Île de France bound for Hollywood to try his luck in the new medium: "talkies".
First Trip to Hollywood
Loder was signed by Paramount Studios. He appeared in The Case of Lena Smith (1929) directed by Josef Von Sternberg. He then made The Doctor's Secret (1929), which was Paramount's first talking picture, and appeared opposite Jack Holt in a Western, Sunset Pass (1929). His very English persona did not win America over at this time.
He also appeared in Black Waters (1929) the first British talkie, which was made in the US by producer Herbert Wilcox, and The Unholy Night (1929) at MGM. Loder made some for Pathe, Her Private Affair (1929), The Racketeer (1929), and Rich People (1930).
Korda had moved to Hollywood and cast Loder in Lilies of the Field (1930). This was made by Warners who also used Loder in The Second Floor Mystery (1930), The Man Hunter (1931) (a Rin Ti-Tin film), Sweethearts and Wives (1930), and One Night at Susie's (1931). He went to Fox for Seas Beneath (1931) directed by John Ford, and did a film for Hal Roach at MGM, On the Loose (1931).
Return to Britain
Loder returned to Britain. He starred in a comedy for Herbert Wilcox, Money Means Nothing (1932), and was reunited with Korda in Wedding Rehearsal (1933).
Loder pursued Merle Oberon in The Battle (1933) and had the star role in Money for Speed (1933) opposite Ida Lupino. He was in You Made Me Love You (1933) and had a small part in Korda's hugely successful The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), playing the true love interest of Elsa Lanchester's Anne of Cleeves.
Loder had lead roles in low budget quota quickies like Paris Plane (1933) and Rolling in Money (1934). He was the romantic male lead in the Gracie Fields vehicle, Love, Life and Laughter (1934).
Loder specialised in leading man parts in Warn London (1934); Java Head (1934) with Anna May Wong; Sing As We Go (1934) with Fields again, and a big hit; My Song Goes Round the World (1934); Lorna Doone (1934), as John Ridd; and 18 Minutes (1935).
He was top billed in The Silent Passenger (1935) and It Happened in Paris (1935) and supported in the Mozart biopic, Whom the Gods Love (1936). Loder was reunited with Gracie Fields in Queen of Hearts (1936) and starred in an IRA drama, Ourselves Alone (1936). He had a part in Guilty Melody (1936) and supported Boris Karloff in The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936).
Loder played the heroic investigator in Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage (1936) replacing Robert Donat. He played Sir Henry Curtis, the male romantic interest in the 1937 original film version of King Solomon's Mines, romancing Anna Lee.[7]
Loder romanced Margaret Lockwood in Doctor Syn (1937), supporting George Arliss. He and Lee were reunited in Non-Stop New York (1937) and he took on Erich von Stroheim in Under Secret Orders (1937).
Loder and Lockwood romanced again in support of a crusty old actor in Owd Bob (1938). He went to France to appear in Katia (1938) with Danielle Darrieux, playing Alexander II of Russia.
Loder returned to Britain and starred in thrillers Anything to Declare? (1939), The Silent Battle (1939) with Rex Harrison, and Murder Will Out (1939. He had the title role in Meet Maxwell Archer (1940).
Return to Hollywood
When the Second World War started, Loaader returned to America. where he coasted into a career in B movie roles, usually playing upper-crust characters, with occasional appearances on Broadway.
He could be seen in Adventure in Diamonds (1940) and Diamond Frontier (1940). At 20th Century Fox he made Tin Pan Alley (1940), Scotland Yard (1941) and How Green Was My Valley (1941), in which he played a brother of Roddy McDowall's character.
He kept busy in war films such as Confirm or Deny (1941), One Night in Lisbon (1941), and Eagle Squadron (1941).
Warner Bros
In Now, Voyager (1942), he played a wealthy widower engaged to Bette Davis's character. That was made by Warners who used Loder in Gentleman Jim (1942) as Errol Flynn's love rival. Warners gave him a then-rare lead in a B, The Gorilla Man (1943), The Mysterious Doctor (1943), Murder on the Waterfront (1943), and Adventure in Iraq (1943).
He was back with Davis in Old Acquaintance (1943) and supported Humphrey Bogart in Passage to Marseille (1944).
In the early 1940s, Loder was host of Silver Theater, a dramatic anthology on CBS radio.[8] He also starred in the programme's 11 June 1944 episode.[9]
Freelance
Loder freelanced as an actor. He had support roles in The Hairy Ape (1944), and Abroad with Two Yanks (1944), then had a lead part in some B films: The Brighton Strangler (1945), Jealousy (1945), A Game of Death (1945) (a remake of The Most Dangerous Game), and The Wife of Monte Cristo (1946).
He supported in an A film, One More Tomorrow (1946) and appeared opposite then-wife Hedy Lamarr in Dishonored Lady (1947). Loder then appeared in a minor Broadway hit in For Love or Money (1947-48).
Later Career
Loder's later film appearances included British films The Story of Esther Costello (1957), Small Hotel (1957), and Gideon's Day (1958).
His last film was The Firechasers (1971).
Personal life
Loder was married five times; two of his wives were actresses: French star Micheline Cheirel (married 1936–41 – she later married Paul Meurisse), and the Austrian-American Hedy Lamarr (married 1943–47). He and Lamarr had two children, Denise (born 1945) and Anthony (born 1947), and he adopted Lamarr's son James Markey from her previous marriage to screenwriter Gene Markey.
Loder's other wives were Sophie Kabel, Evelyn Auff Mordt, and finally in 1958, the heiress Alba Julia Lagomarsino of Argentina, where he lived on her 25,000-acre cattle ranch and spent much time at the Jockey Club in Buenos Aires. After they divorced in 1972,[10] Loder returned to London and resided for some years in a house opposite Harrods.
In 1947, he became an American citizen. In 1959, he became a naturalised citizen of the United Kingdom, as he had been of "uncertain nationality".[11]
His general health deteriorated in his eighties, and he was admitted in 1982 to the Distressed Gentlefolks Aid Association's Nursing Home in Vicarage Gate, Kensington, where he was well looked after, venturing out by taxi once a week to his London club, 'Bucks', in Mayfair, for luncheons. He died in London, aged 90, in 1988.[12] His autobiography, Hollywood Hussar was published in 1977.
John Loder's eldest son, Robin William Lowe (1925 – 29 March 2002[13]), followed his father to Eton and served in the Grenadier Guards. He later became a theatrical and literary agent and was married three times. His last marriage was to British actress Hilary Tindall (1938–1992), who played Ann Hammond in the 1970s BBC TV series The Brothers.[14]
