Norman Lloyd in “The Circle of Missing Poets”. – MARY EVANS / SIPA
He was the dean of cinema. Actor, producer and director Norman Lloyd, real name Norman Perlmutter, died on May 10 at the age of 106, his friend, producer Dean Hargrove, told the American magazine Variety.
“The third act of his life was really the best time of his life,” said the latter. The last witness to the golden age of Hollywood had spent his last years regaling with many anecdotes at retrospectives and other festivals.
Theater debut with Orson Welles
Born in 1914, child star, Norman LLoyd cut his teeth at the theater where he works for Elia Kazan, Joseph Losey and Orson Welles.
He is best known for his title role in The Fifth Column Alfred Hitchcok in 1942. He found the master of suspense in 1945 to Doctor Edwardes House.
A collaboration with Charlie Chaplin
In the 1950s, he played for Jean Renoir (Southern man), Richard Brooks (Miracle in Tunis), Anthony Mann (The black book), Jacques Tourneur (The Arrow and the Torch), Joseph Losey (M) and Charlie Chaplin (The spotlight).
In 1957, Alfred Hitchcock insisted on hiring Norman Lloyd as associate producer for his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In the 1960s and 1970s, he produced and directed for television, collaborating in particular on the Columbo series.
The principal of the “Circle of missing poets”
In the 1980s, he became known to a new generation for his role as Dr Auschlander in the NBC medical series, St Elsewhere Hospital. In 1989, he played the school principal of Circle of Missing Poets.
He then multiplies his appearances on television as on Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Practice or Modern Family. But also in the cinema, as recently in the comedy Crazy Amy (2015) by Judd Apatow.