Lloyd Benedict Nolan (August 11, 1902 – September 27, 1985) was an American stage, film and television actor who rose from a supporting player and B-movie lead early in his career to featured player status after creating the role of Captain Queeg in Herman Wouk's play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in the mid-1950s. Nolan won a Best Actor Emmy Award reprising the part in 1955 TV play based on Wouk's tale of military justice.[1]
Born
Lloyd Benedict Nolan
Died
Occupation
Actor
Years active
1929–1985
Notable work
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters
Spouses
Mell Efrid
(m. 1933; died 1981)Virginia Dabney
(m. 1983)Children
2
Starting in the 1950s, Nolan worked extensively in television while appearing in major motion pictures as a character actor. As he got older, he often played doctors, including in the Oscar-nominated movie Peyton Place and in Julia, the first American TV series starring an African American woman. For playing Doctor Morton Chegley to Diahann Carroll's nurse Julia Baker, Nolan was nominated for a 1969 Emmy for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series.
His last role was in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, which was released posthumously in 1986, the year after he died, bringing down the curtain on a career that spanned half a century. It is a measure of the respect in which he was held that his obituary in the Los Angeles Times was entitled "Lloyd Nolan, the Actor’s Actor, Dies."[2]
Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the youngest of three children of Margaret, who was of Irish descent, and James Nolan, an Irish immigrant who was a shoe manufacturer.[3][4] He attended Santa Clara Preparatory School[3] and Stanford University,[5] flunking out of Stanford as a freshman "because I never got around to attending any other class but dramatics."[6] His parents disapproved of his choice of a career in acting, preferring that he join his father's shoe business, "one of the most solvent commercial firms in San Francisco."[7]
Nolan served in the United States Merchant Marine before joining the Dennis Players theatrical troupe in Cape Cod.[7] He began his career on stage and was subsequently lured to Hollywood, where he played mainly doctors, private detectives, and policemen in many film roles.[8]
Nolan's obituary in the Los Angeles Times contained the evaluation, "Nolan was to both critics and audiences the veteran actor who works often and well regardless of his material."[3] Although Nolan's acting was often praised by critics, he was, for the most part, relegated to B pictures. Despite this, Nolan co-starred with a number of well-known actresses, among them Mae West, Dorothy McGuire, and former Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Gladys Swarthout. Under contract to Paramount and 20th Century Fox studios, he essayed starring roles in the late '30s and early-to-mid '40s and appeared as the title character in the Michael Shayne detective series. Raymond Chandler's novel The High Window was adapted from a Philip Marlowe adventure for the seventh film in the Michael Shayne series, Time to Kill (1942); the film was remade five years later as The Brasher Doubloon, truer to Chandler's original story, with George Montgomery as Marlowe.[9]
A number of Nolan's films were light entertainment with an emphasis on action. His most famous include: Atlantic Adventure; costarring Nancy Carroll; Ebb Tide; Wells Fargo; Every Day's a Holiday, starring Mae West; and Bataan starring Robert Taylor.
Nolan also contributed solid and key character parts in numerous other films. In Johnny Apollo (1940) he was a charismatic but finally self-serving and murderous gang boss. In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, with Dorothy McGuire and James Dunn, he played a lonely beat policeman. In later years he gave a notable performance as a straight talking doctor who ultimately rails against small-town hypocrisy in the 1957 film Peyton Place with Lana Turner.[3] One of his films was a startling revelation to audiences in 1945. The House on 92nd Street was a conflation of several true incidents of attempted sabotage by the Nazi regime (incidents which the FBI was able to thwart during World War II). Many scenes were filmed on location in New York City, unusual at the time, and real employees of the FBI interacted with Nolan throughout the film. Nolan reprised his role as FBI Agent Briggs in the 1948 movie, The Street with No Name.[3]
One of the last of his many military roles was playing an admiral at the start of what proved to be Howard Hughes' favorite film, Ice Station Zebra.[10]
Later in Nolan's career, he returned to the stage and appeared on television to great acclaim in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, for which he received a 1955 Emmy award for portraying Captain Queeg,[3] the role made famous by Humphrey Bogart. Nolan also made guest appearances on television shows, including NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, The Bing Crosby Show, a sitcomonABC and the Emmy-winning NBC anthology series The Barbara Stanwyck Show.
Nolan appeared on Wagon Train in the second season, episode 16, as the title character in “The Hunter Malloy Story”, January 21, 1959.
Nolan appeared three times on NBC's Laramie Western series, as sheriff Tully Hatch in the episode "The Star Trail (1959), as outlaw Matt Dyer in the episode "Deadly Is the Night" (1961) and then as former Union Army General George Barton in the episode "War Hero" (1962). On December 8, 1960, Nolan was cast as Dr. Elisha Pittman, in "Knife of Hate" on Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. In the story line, Dr. Pittman removed one of the legs of Jack Hoyt (Robert Harland) after Hoyt sustained a gunshot wound from which infection was developing. Hoyt wants to marry Susan Pittman (Susan Oliver), but her father is at first unyielding on the matter.
Nolan starred in The Outer Limits episode "Soldier" written by Harlan Ellison. He appeared in the NBC Western Bonanza as LaDuke, a New Orleans detective. In 1967, Strother Martin and he guest-starred in the episode "A Mighty Hunter Before the Lord" of NBC's The Road West series, starring Barry Sullivan. Also in 1967, Nolan was a guest star in the popular Western TV series The Virginian, in the episode "The Masquerade", and in the pilot episode of Mannix.[11]
Nolan co-starred from 1968 to 1971 in the pioneering NBC series Julia, with Diahann Carroll, who was the first African American woman to star in a non-servant role in her own television series.[3]
One of his last appearances was a guest spot as himself in the 1984 episode "Cast in Steele" on the TV detective series Remington Steele.
On February 8, 1960, Nolan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in the television industry, at 1752 Vine Street.[12][13]
In his later years, Nolan appeared in commercials for Polident.[14]
Nolan married Mell Efrid in 1933. They had a daughter Melinda who gave them two grandchildren, and a son Jay. The couple remained married until Efrid's death in 1981.[citation needed]
Their son Jay Nolan had autism and was institutionalized at a private institution at age 13. He died at age 26 from choking while eating.[15] When Lloyd Nolan went public in 1972 about his son's autism, it was revealed that Jay was one of the first children in the United States to be diagnosed with the condition.[citation needed]
In 1983, Nolan married Virginia Dabney, with whom he remained until his death.[16][17]
Nolan was a lifelong Republican.[17]
In 1964, Nolan spoke at the "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine AuditoriuminLos Angeles. The gathering, which was hosted by Anthony Eisley, a star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series, sought to flood the United States Congress with letters in support of mandatory school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court which struck down mandatory school prayer as conflicting with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.[18][19] Joining Nolan and Eisley at the rally were Walter Brennan, Rhonda Fleming, Dale Evans, Pat Boone, and Gloria Swanson. At the rally, Nolan asked, "Do we permit ourselves to be turned into a godless people, or do we preserve America as one nation under God?"[19] Eisley and Fleming added that John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Roy Rogers, Mary Pickford, Jane Russell, Ginger Rogers, and Pat Buttram would also have attended the rally had their schedules not been in conflict.[19] "Project Prayer" was ultimately unsuccessful in its campaign to keep public prayer in public schools.
In 1973, Nolan testified to Congress urging that autism be recognized as a developmental disability. Nolan is credited with having convinced Ronald Reagan to sign California's bill mandating education be provided to children with autism.[20] Nolan founded the Jay Nolan Autistic Center (now known as Jay Nolan Community Services)[21] in honor of his son, Jay,[3] and was chairman of the annual Save Autistic Children Telethon.
Nolan appeared alongside Ronald Reagan during the 1976 New Hampshire presidential primary in which he nearly scored an upset against President Gerald Ford.[citation needed]
A long-time cigar and pipe smoker, Nolan died of lung cancer on September 27, 1985, at his home in Brentwood, California;[22] he was 83.[3] He is interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park CemeteryinWestwood, Los Angeles, California.[23]
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1935
Hugh Farrell
1935
Chesty Burrage
1935
Dan Miller
1935
Tex
1935
Jerry
1936
Neil Bennett
1936
Michael
1936
Russ Cortig
1936
Dana Kirk
1936
Capper Stevens
1936
Sam 'Polka Dot' McGee
1936
Det. Sgt. Walsh
1937
Hanlon
1937
Jim Adams
1937
Charles Gillette
1937
Attwater
1937
John Quade
1937
Dal Slade
1938
Inspector Brandon
1938
Bob Anders
1938
Joe Albany
1938
Larry Harrison
1938
Raymond Grayson
1939
Tony Andrews
1939
Dave Geurney
1939
Robert Anders
1939
Sam Barr
1940
Joe Monday
1940
Slant Kolma
1940
Mickey Dwyer
1940
Matthew J. 'Matty' Burns
1940
Kenneth Delane
1940
Gus Fender
1940
Danny Dolan
1940
King Morgan
1940
Michael Shayne, Private Detective
1940
Stuart Woodrow
1941
Tommy N. Thornton ('Mr. Dynamite')
1941
Michael Shayne
1941
Michael Shayne
1941
Rickey Deane
1941
Del Davis
1941
Rocky Evans
1942
Michael Shayne
1942
Michael Shayne
1942
Frank 'Butterfingers' Maguire
1942
Michael Shayne
1942
Trigger Bill Folliard
1942
Lucky Matthews
1942
Michael Shayne
1943
Corp. Barney Todd
1943
Commentator
Short film
1943
Sgt. Hook Malone
1944
Attack! The Battle of New Britain
Narrator (voice)
Documentary
1944
USAF Debriefing Officer / Narrator
Uncredited
1945
Officer McShane
1945
Sam Lord
1945
Narrator (voice)
Documentary
1945
Lt. Jim Whittaker
1945
Inspector George A. Briggs
1946
Police Lt. Donald Kendall
1946
Bob Simms
1947
Lt. DeGarmot
1947
Kink
1948
Rob McLaughlin
1948
Inspector George A. Briggs
1949
Thomas I. Chandler
1949
Marshall Brown
1949
Lenahan
1951
Oxford Charlie
1953
Captain Stutz
1953
Win Brockmeyer
1956
Woodfoot
1956
Clay Pike
Alternative title: The Gun Runner
1956
Brig. Gen. Bill Banner
Alternative title: Brink of Hell
1957
Frank Kelly
Alternative titles: Abandon Ship
Seven Days From Now
1957
John Pope Sr.
1957
1960
Matthew S. Cabot
1960
Dr. Mitchell
1961
Roger Slade
1962
Vice Admiral Ryan
1963
Federal Agent Arthur Rickerby
1964
Cap Carson
Alternative title: The Magnificent Showman
1965
Mayor Crane
1966
Barney Kelly
Alternative title: See You in Hell, Darling
1967
Edwards
1968
Gen. Amos Bailey
1968
Admiral Garvey
1970
Harry Standish
1974
Dr. James Vance
1975
The Sky's the Limit
Cornwall
1977
The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover
1978
My Boys Are Good Boys
Security Officer Dan Mountgomery
1980
Galyon
Willard Morgan
1985
1986
Evan
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1950
Nifty Miller
Episode: "The Barker"
1951–1952
Martin Kane
7 episodes
1952
Episode: "Protect Her Honor"
1955
Jack London
Episode: "Sailor on Horseback"
1955
Lt. Cmdr. Philip Francis Queeg
Episode: "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial"
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
1957
Capt. Kuyper
Episode: "Galvanized Yankee"
1958–1960
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Dr. Elisha Pittman / Adam Larkin
2 episodes
1959
Special Agent Philip Conroy
25 episodes
1959
Hunter Malloy
Episode: "The Hunter Malloy Story"
1959
Ah, Wilderness!
Nat Miller
Television film
1959
Sheriff Orville Darrow
Episode: "Six Guns for Donegan"
1959
Coach Harper
Episode: "Bud Plays It Safe"
1959
George 'Bugs' Moran
Episode: "The George 'Bugs' Moran Story"
1959–1962
General George Barton / Matt Dyer / Sheriff Tully Hatch
3 episodes
1960
Narrator
Episode: "Crime, Inc."
1960
Inspector Charles Leduque
Episode: "The Stranger"
1960
George McShane
Episode: "The Seventh Miracle"
1961
Stroud
Episode: "The Glass Jungle"
1961
Robert Hale / Michael Bowen
2 episodes
1962
Buck Breeson
Episode: "Buck Breeson Rides Again"
1962
Vernon Clay
Episode: "Special Assignment"
1963
James Feveral
Episode: "Two Faces of Treason"
1963
Col. Fraser
2 episodes
1963
Col. David Watkins
3 episodes
1963
Gen. Amos Bailey
2 episodes
1963–1967
Tom Foster / Abe Clayton / Wade Anders
3 episodes
1964
Tom Kagan
Episode: "Soldier"
1964
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Dan Sinclair
Episode: "Mr. Biddle's Crime Wave"
1965
Ben Hanks
Episode: "The Price of Friendship"
1965
Harvey
Episode: "What's a Buddy For?"
1965
Admiral Wallace Blackburtn
Episode: "Rally Round Your Own Flag, Mister"
1967
The Road West
Jed Daniell
Episode: "A Mighty Hunter Before the Lord"
1967
Max Clarity
Television film
1967
Sam Dubrio
Episode: "The Name Is Mannix"
1968
Dr. Richmond
Episode: "The Cage"
1968
D.A. Patrick Bantry
Episode: "The Devil's Surrogate"
1968
Manion
Episode: "The Name of the Game"
1968–1971
Dr. Morton Chegley / Dr. Norton Chegley
86 episodes
Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (1969)
1972
Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law
Episode: "A Question of Degree"
1972
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
Dr. Karl Richardson
Episode: "A Nation of Human Pincushions"
1973
Jesse Chapin
Television film
1973
Elroy Jenkins
Episode: "Butch Cassidy Rides Again"
1973
Judge Harper
Episode: "The Killing Truth"
1974
Charles Keegan
2 episodes
1975
Cornwall
2 episodes
1975
The Abduction of Saint Anne
Carl Gentry
Television film
1975
Lincoln
Episode: "The Unwilling Warrior"
1976
Doctor Sanford
Episode: "The Adventure of the Sunday Punch"
1976
General Butler
Episode: "The November Plan: Part 1"
1977
Horace Sherwin
Episode: "Affair of the Heart"
1977
Flight to Holocaust
Wilton Bender
Television film
1977
Doc Bennett
Television film
1977
The November Plan
Television film
1977
Q. Waldo Mims
Episode: "Merry Christmas Waldo"
1977
The Mask of Alexander Cross
Strickland
Television film
1977
Episode: "The Price of Everything"
1978
Cyrus Guthrie
Episode: "The Return"
1978
Dr. Herbert Schumann
Episode: "A Test for Living"
1978
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
Professor Anton Hendricks
Episode: "Search for Atlantis"
1979
Dr. Warnecke
"Dewey and Harold and Sarah and Maggie"
1979
Valentine
Brother Joe
Television film
1981
Judge Sean McGuire
2 episodes
1982
Adams House
Frank Gallagher
Television film
1984
Himself
Episode: "Cast in Steele"
1984
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Monsignor Donoghue
Television film
1985
Julian Tenley
Episode: "Murder in the Afternoon"
Year
Program
Episode/source
1945
"Murder for Myra"[24]
1945
"Nineteen Deacon Street"[25]
1946
"Hunting Trip"[26]
1947
"Green-Eyed Monster"[27]
1947
"Double Ugly"[28]
1952
The Man with Two Faces[29]
1953
Vial of Death[30]
