---
name: "Frank Lloyd"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/frank-lloyd-72061"
roles: ["Director","Producer"]
born: "2 February 1886"
died: "10 August 1960"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 70
average_as: "director"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-19T22:40:57.168173+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Frank Lloyd

Director and producer. Born 2 February 1886 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Died 10 August 1960.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer
- **Born:** 2 February 1886, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- **Died:** 10 August 1960
- **Active:** 1931–1935
- **Also known as:** Frank William George Lloyd
- **Frequently works with:** [Beryl Mercer](https://film.one/person/beryl-mercer.md), [Clive Brook](https://film.one/person/clive-brook.md), [Herbert Mundin](https://film.one/person/herbert-mundin.md), [Winfield Sheehan](https://film.one/person/winfield-r-sheehan.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscars (2 won · 2 nominated)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 70, as director, over 2 titles
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28941, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0515979/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/72061

## Fi1m on Frank Lloyd

> Frank Lloyd built big period pictures for the studios and built them well, on time and to order. In *Cavalcade* we saw the craft and the trouble at once: handsome streets, a fine actress held in close-up, and not one hard question asked.

Watch what Frank Lloyd does when Diana Wynyard is handed bad news in *Cavalcade* (1933). He does not cut away and he does not bring the music in early; he holds on her face while it goes still. It is the best decision in the film, and it is the decision of a man who knows what he has and gets out of its way. That is Lloyd at his most useful. The trouble is that the same instinct, applied to a whole picture, leaves it with nothing to say.

He came to it from the stage. Born in Cambuslang, near Glasgow, in 1886, he worked in vaudeville and the theatre before leaving for Canada in 1909 and the United States in 1913, where he acted in films and began directing shorts in 1914. The silent years were prolific, at Paramount, Fox, Goldwyn and First National, with *Les Misérables* (1917) and *The Sea Hawk* (1924) among the features. Sound did not trouble him. *The Divine Lady* (1929) and *East Lynne* (1931) kept him in costume and melodrama, *Cavalcade* followed, and *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1935) remains the film most people can name. Then *Wells Fargo* (1937), *Blood on the Sun* (1945) with James Cagney, a retirement in the mid-1940s, and two late pictures for Republic in 1954 and 1955.

The pattern is plain: literary sources, history, big sets, established stars, delivered on schedule and without fuss, and no appetite for publicity. Most critics have filed him as a dependable craftsman rather than an author, and compared him unfavourably to Cecil B. DeMille. We would not go quite that far. There is judgement in *Cavalcade*. The streets and docks are properly built and populated, Una O'Connor's sniff and Herbert Mundin's Alfred Bridges are allowed to be funny, and the film knows Wynyard is its centre and keeps coming back to her.

What it lacks is any argument with its own material. Noël Coward's pageant salutes the flag and weeps on cue, and Lloyd salutes and weeps along with it. Every public calamity from 1899 to 1933 is arranged to pass in front of the same window, and nobody in the film, or behind the camera, asks why. We sat through most of its 112 minutes waiting for the picture to disagree with itself, even for a scene, and it never did; by the second hour we were bored, and cross about being bored by something so carefully and expensively made. A director who trusts his actress that much ought to have trusted his audience a little too.

That is the caveat with Lloyd, on our evidence: the craft is real and the politeness is total. If you want to see what a first-rank studio director could build in 1933, and what he would not touch, *Cavalcade* is the place to look. Go for Wynyard. Do not go expecting a question.

## Biography

Frank Lloyd (1886–1960) was a Scottish-American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Born in Glasgow, he began his career on the London stage before emigrating to Canada in 1910 and moving to Hollywood in 1913, where he started as an actor and soon turned to directing.

Lloyd directed *East Lynne* (1931) and both directed and produced *Cavalcade* (1933). He is best known for *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1935), *Cavalcade* (1933) and *Blood on the Sun* (1945). He was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served as its president from 1934 to 1935. He won Academy Awards for Best Director for *The Divine Lady* (1929) and *Cavalcade* (1933), and received a further nomination for *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1935).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1935), Fi1m 83, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/mutiny-on-the-bounty.md)
- *Cavalcade* (1933), Fi1m 57, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/cavalcade.md)

## Complete filmography (101)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Last Command* (1955), Associate Producer, Director
- *The Shanghai Story* (1954), Director, Associate Producer
- *The Last Bomb* (1945), Director
- *Blood on the Sun* (1945), Director
- *Forever and a Day* (1943), Director
- *Invisible Agent* (1942), Producer
- *The Spoilers* (1942), Producer
- *Saboteur* (1942), Producer
- *This Woman Is Mine* (1941), Director, Producer
- *The Lady from Cheyenne* (1941), Director
- *The Howards of Virginia* (1940), Director, Producer
- *Rulers of the Sea* (1939), Director, Producer
- *If I Were King* (1938), Director, Producer
- *Wells Fargo* (1937), Director, Producer
- *Maid of Salem* (1937), Director, Producer
- *Under Two Flags* (1936), Director
- *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1935), Director, Producer — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/mutiny-on-the-bounty.md)
- *Servants' Entrance* (1934), Director
- *Hoopla* (1933), Director
- *Berkeley Square* (1933), Director
- *Cavalcade* (1933), Director, Producer — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/cavalcade.md)
- *A Passport to Hell* (1932), Director
- *The Age for Love* (1931), Director, Adaptation, Producer
- *East Lynne* (1931), Director
- *The Lash* (1930), Director, Producer
- *The Right of Way* (1930), Director
- *The Way of All Men* (1930), Director
- *Son of the Gods* (1930), Director
- *Young Nowheres* (1929), Director
- *Dark Streets* (1929), Director
- *Drag* (1929), Director
- *Weary River* (1929), Director, Producer
- *The Divine Lady* (1928), Director
- *Adoration* (1928), Director
- *Children of Divorce* (1927), Director
- *The Eagle of the Sea* (1926), Director
- *The Wise Guy* (1926), Director
- *The Splendid Road* (1925), Director
- *Winds of Chance* (1925), Director
- *Her Husband's Secret* (1925), Director, Writer, Producer
- *The Silent Watcher* (1924), Director
- *The Sea Hawk* (1924), Director
- *Black Oxen* (1923), Director, Writer
- *Ashes of Vengeance* (1923), Director, Adaptation
- *Within the Law* (1923), Director
- *The Voice from the Minaret* (1923), Director
- *The Sin Flood* (1922), Director
- *Oliver Twist* (1922), Director
- *The Eternal Flame* (1922), Director
- *Sherlock Brown* (1922), Director
- *The Grim Comedian* (1921), Director
- *A Voice in the Dark* (1921), Director
- *A Tale of Two Worlds* (1921), Director
- *The Great Lover* (1920), Director
- *Madame X* (1920), Director, Writer
- *The Silver Horde* (1920), Director
- *The Woman in Room 13* (1920), Director
- *West Is Best* (1920), Actor
- *The Loves of Letty* (1919), Director
- *The World and Its Woman* (1919), Director
- *Pitfalls of a Big City* (1919), Director
- *The Man Hunter* (1919), Director, Story, Scenario Writer
- *For Freedom* (1918), Director
- *The Rainbow Trail* (1918), Director, Scenario Writer
- *His Extra Bit* (1918), Director
- *Riders of the Purple Sage* (1918), Director, Writer
- *True Blue* (1918), Director, Screenplay, Story
- *The Blindness of Divorce* (1918), Director, Writer
- *The Kingdom of Love* (1917), Director, Writer
- *The Heart of a Lion* (1917), Director, Scenario Writer
- *Les Misérables* (1917), Director, Scenario Writer
- *When a Man Sees Red* (1917), Director, Scenario Writer
- *American Methods* (1917), Writer, Director
- *A Tale of Two Cities* (1917), Director, Screenplay, Scenario Writer
- *The Price of Silence* (1917), Director, Scenario Writer
- *The World and the Woman* (1916), Director
- *Sins of Her Parent* (1916), Director
- *The Intrigue* (1916), Director
- *The Stronger Love* (1916), as Tom Serviss · Director
- *An International Marriage* (1916), Director
- *The Making of Maddalena* (1916), Director
- *The Tongues of Men* (1916), Director
- *David Garrick* (1916), Director
- *The Code of Marcia Gray* (1916), Director, Writer
- *Madame la Presidente* (1916), Director
- *The Call of the Cumberlands* (1916), Director
- *The Reform Candidate* (1915), Director
- *The Gentleman from Indiana* (1915), Director, Scenario Writer
- *The Source of Happiness* (1915), Director
- *Their Golden Wedding* (1915), Director
- *The Black Box* (1915), as Ian MacDougal
- *The Opened Shutters* (1914), as Judge Calvin Trent
- *The Spy* (1914), as Jake Parsons
- *The Test* (1914), as The Rich Man
- *One of the Bravest* (1914), as Jim Mack
- *Roads of Destiny*, Director
- *The Invisible Power*, Director
- *The Man from Lost River*, Director
- *10,000 Dollars*, Director, Writer
- *To Redeem a Value*, Director
- *Jane*, Director

## Gallery

- ![Frank Lloyd holding his "Best Director" Oscar for The Divine Lady (1930)](https://film.one/media/person/1225182/gallery-86f0f0fd9789.jpg) Frank Lloyd holding his "Best Director" Oscar for The Divine Lady (1930) — Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Frank_Lloyd_Best_Director_April_1930.jpg/1280px-Frank_Lloyd_Best_Director_April_1930.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Frank Lloyd, film director Subjects: miscellaneous (1924)](https://film.one/media/person/1225182/gallery-eb25f4864010.jpg) Frank Lloyd, film director Subjects: miscellaneous (1924) — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Frank_Lloyd%2C_film_director_%28SAYRE_5935%29.jpg/1280px-Frank_Lloyd%2C_film_director_%28SAYRE_5935%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Frank Lloyd](https://film.one/media/person/1225182/gallery-94372b63bac1.jpg) Frank Lloyd — Anonymous photographer, not identified anywhere, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/WP_Frank_Lloyd_1920.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Frank Lloyd](https://film.one/media/person/1225182/gallery-a8a70e0f88a9.jpg) Frank Lloyd — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 2 won, 2 nominated

- 1936: Best Director (nominated), for *Mutiny on the Bounty*
- 1934: Best Director (won), for *Cavalcade*
- 1930: Best Director (won), for *The Divine Lady*
- 1929: Best Director (nominated), for *Drag*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/frank-lloyd-72061