Harold Lloyd began in motion pictures in 1913. After making dozens of silent shorts, Lloyd graduated to writing, directing and starring in feature comedies, and he became one of Hollywood's first movie stars. Lloyd was uncannily athletic in his stunts; his most famous on-screen persona was called simply "Glasses Character," a hapless fellow continually in peril. A shot of Lloyd hanging from the hands of a giant clock, 12 stories above a city street, is one of the best-known images of the silent comedy era. (The film was 1923's Safety Last.) Lloyd continued to make films in the sound era, though without the same success, and released compilations into the 1960s.

His adoring public never knew that Lloyd had accidentally blown off his right thumb and forefinger in 1919. In his films he wore a glove and a prosthesis.