Movie Star Mystery Photo

 

Los Angeles Times file photo Update: As nearly everyone has guessed, this is John Loder. Above, a photo published Oct. 5, 1928, with a story saying that he was making his U.S. screen debut in a talking picture for Paramount, "Half an Hour." which was released as "The Doctor's Secret." John Loder, 90; Debonair Star of '30s, '40s January 20, 1989 By BURT A. FOLKART, Times Staff Writer John Loder, the aristocratic and debonair romantic star of films that began with early American silents and extended over more than three decades, has died at the age of 90. The New York Times said in its Thursday editions that he died somewhere in England late last month. Further details were not available. Born John Lowe in York, England, Loder's off-screen persona was often as fascinating as the tweedy, pipe-smoking gentlemen of leisure he normally portrayed on the screen. The third of his five wives was Hedy Lamarr, and newspaper clippings of the 1930s and '40s dwell more on his marriages and social activities than they do his films. Born the son of a British general, he attended Eton and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst before serving as a lieutenant with the 15th Hussars in North Africa, France and Turkey during World War I. He was a prisoner of war for a time and titled his 1977 autobiography "Hollywood Hussar." In 1926 he played a subordinate role to German starlet Marlene Dietrich in a dance scene in Alexander Korda's "Madame Wants No Children." By the early 1930s he was making pictures in both Hollywood and Europe and appeared in Paramount's early talkie, "The Doctor's Secret" in 1929. He continued to make films in both his adopted land (he became a citizen of the United States in 1947) and his native England until 1970, when he was seen in "Cause for Alarm," his first on-screen role in a decade. That was his final credit. In all he appeared in more than 60 films. He probably will best be remembered for his work as the eldest son in "How Green Was My Valley," opposite Lamarr in "Dishonored Lady" and in the lachrymose classic "Now Voyager" which starred Bette Davis. His other pictures included the 1937 version of "King Solomon's Mines," Alfred Hitchcock's "Sabotage," "Lorna Doone," "Gideon of Scotland Yard" and "Passage to Marseilles." Loder's fifth and last wife was Julia Lagomarsino, widow of an Argentine cattle rancher. For a time they made their home in both Argentina and England. Just a reminder on how this works: I post the mystery photo on Monday and reveal the answer on Friday ... or on Saturday if I have a hard time picking only five pictures -- sometimes it's difficult to choose. To keep the mystery photo from getting lost in the other entries, I move it from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, etc., adding a photo every day. I have to approve all comments, so if your guess is posted immediately, that means you're wrong. (And if a wrong guess has already been submitted by someone else, there's no point in submitting it again.) If you're right, you will have to wait until Friday. There's no need to submit your guess five times. Once is enough. The only prize is bragging rights.  The answer to last week's mystery star: Lois Wilson! Los Angeles Times file photo Update: Merle Oberon and John Loder in "Thunder in the East," June 9, 1935. Here's our mystery fellow with a mystery companion. Please congratulate Jany,  "Laura" fan Waldo Lydecker, Mary Mallory, Megan Bailey and Jeff Hanna for correctly identifying him! Los Angeles Times file photo Update: John Loder and his wife Micheline Cheirel, Nov. 30, 1940. Here's another pictures of our mystery guest with a mysterious companion. Please congratulate Don Danard, Donna Hill, Dewey Webb, Eve Golden and co-worker Mel, Carmen, Sue, Claire Lockhart, Grant Lockhart (are you guys related?), Nancy Price, William, Roget-L.A., LC, Michael Ryerson and Cinnamon Carter for identifying him.  Los Angeles Times file photo Update: John Loder and Hedy Lamarr, right, at the baptism of their daughter Denise, held by Bette Davis, with the Rev. J. Herbert Smith at All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, April 9, 1946. And another picture of our mystery guest with some mystery companions. Please congratulate Mike Hawks, Barbara Klein, Candy C and Ann Turpin for correctly identifying him. Los Angeles Times file photo An undated photo of John Loder and his "better half" thanks to The Times' art department.

Comments

[Rance Ryan]

Melvyn Douglas

[Carmen]

Louis Calhern

[Eve]

Mel and I are stumped, so I will guess, "it's Clara Bow AND Theda Bara!"

It's from around 1930, I will say that much,.

[Barbara Klein]

Paul Bern

[Joan Myers]

Reginald Denny?

[Greg Clancey]

What's with the hair?

[waldo lydecker]

I would say a young Neil Hamillton.

[william]

young Vincent Price, with his hair combed down straight

[Nick Santa Maria]

Bruce Bennet (Herman Brix)?

[Jany]

John Loder

[Cat Murray]

Conrad Nagel

[Deb Morris]

Douglas Fairbanks Jr?

[annie frye]

John Lund?

[waldo lydecker]

Second try -- John Loder?

[gerald mccann]

Conrad Veidt

[J.A. Brady]

Gig Young

[Mary mallory]

It's John Loder. I went out of town this weekend and just got home. It was hard to miss it this morning. Mike Hawks was at the same film festival (the Broncho Billy Film Festival) and he's off tomorrow, so he won't guess until Wednesday, but he'll know who it is too.

[Megan Bailey]

John Loder

[juliet]

Nils Asther?

[Jeff Hanna]

John Loder

[gerald mccann]

Neil Hamilton

[gerald mccann]

Bruce Bennet

[Donna Hill]

John Loder, I hope! :-)

[Eve]

Mel says, "John Loder?"

[Dewey Webb]

John Loder, Merle Oberon