JOHN LODER
John Loder
- © London Film Productions
- (John Loder in The Private Life of Henry VIII., 1933)
Biography
BIO
John Loder was born William John Muir Lowe in London, England, in 1898. His father was Major-General W.H.M. Lowe (1891-1944) who defeated the Irish Republican forces in Dublin, Ireland, in 1916.
Loder attended Eton and Royal Military Colleges before receiving his commission as a second lieutenant in the British Army. He fought in World War I before being captured in France and sent to a German prison camp.
After the war, Loder remained in Germany and co-founded a pickle factory in Potsdam.
He began acting on the German stage and first appeared in silent film for Fellner & Somio in 1925, at the age of 27, as a dancer - along with the young Marlene Dietrich. After appearing as a supporting actor in more than 10 German feature films, Loder returned to England in 1928 just long enough to co-star in a silent feature for Gainsborough Pictures before shipping off to find his fortune in Hollywood.
He appeared in his first sound feature for Paramount Pictures in 1929. After several more years working as a supporting actor, Loder was lured back to England for his first starring role for Herbert Wilcox in 1932. He remained there until the outbreak of war in Europe and returned to Hollywood in 1939.
By the mid-1940s, Loder was a ‘B’ picture star and became one of the first actors to appear on the nascent television medium in the late 1940s. By the mid-1950s, he had again returned to England where he continued to appear on television and film. After marrying his fifth wife, an Argentinian heiress, he accompanied her to her estate outside of Buenos Aires and remained there until the early 1970s.
After a career of more than 95 feature films, Loder’s last picture was released in 1971.
He married five times:
- Sophie Kabel, (m. ?-?), one child, divorced. Their son, Robin William Lowe (1925-2002), was a theatrical and literary agent in London;
- Micheline Cheirel (1917-2002), actress, (m. 1936-1941), one child, divorced;
- Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000), actress, (m. 1943-1947), two children, divorced;
- Evelyn Auff Mordt, (m. 1949-1955), divorced;
- Alba Julia Lagomarsino, (m. 1958-1972), one child, divorced.
Loder died in London, England, in 1988, at the age of 90.
Additional biographical information is available at: 
