John Loder (born William John Muir Lowe; 3 January 1898 – 26 December 1988) was a British actor who later became an American citizen (1947).

Early life and military service

He was born at 11 Herbert Crescent, Knightsbridge, London. His father was General W. H. M. Lowe, the British officer to whom Patrick Pearse, the leader of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, surrendered. Both were present at the surrender.

He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Berkshire.

He followed his father into the army, being commissioned into 15th Hussars as a second lieutenant on 17 March 1915, and then served in the Gallipoli Campaign, leaving there on 19 December that year. On 21 April 1916 until early May, he was in Ireland, before proceeding to Rouen, France to rejoin his regiment. He was engaged in the 1916 Battle of the Somme and was taken prisoner by the Germans on 21 March 1918 at the village of Roisel. He was taken to Le Cateau gaol and then by train to the first of several prisoner-of-war camps, at Rastatt, in Baden, Germany. Upon being released, he stayed in Germany, resuming military duties on behalf of the Inter-Allied Commission in Breslau and Upper Silesia.

Acting career

Leaving the cavalry he went into business with a German friend, Walter Becker, establishing a pickle factory in Potsdam. Later Loder began to develop an interest in acting, appearing in bit parts in a few German films at the Tempelhof Film Studios, employed by Alexander Korda. He left Germany to briefly return to the United Kingdom, before leaving on the SS Île de France bound for Hollywood to try his luck in the new medium: “talkies”. He appeared in The Doctor’s Secret, which was Paramount’s first talking picture—though his very English persona did not win America over at this time. He returned to Britain, where he co-starred in plush musicals and intrigue such as Love, Life and Laughter and Sabotage. He was the male romantic interest in the 1937 original film version of King Solomon’s Mines

When the Second World War started, he returned to America. where he seamlessly coasted into a career in B movie roles, usually playing upper-crust characters, with occasional appearances on Broadway. He occasionally had supporting parts in major films such as How Green Was My Valley, in which he played a brother of Roddy McDowall’s character; and Now, Voyager, in which he played a wealthy widower engaged to Bette Davis’s character. His last screen appearance was in 1971.

In the early 1940s, Loder was host of Silver Theater, a dramatic anthology on CBS radio. He also starred in the programme’s 11 June 1944 episode.

Personal life

Loder was married five times; two of his wives were actresses: French star Micheline Cheirel (married 1936–41 – she later married Paul Meurisse), and the Austrian-American Hedy Lamarr (married 1943–47). He and Lamarr had two children, Denise (born 1945) and Anthony (born 1947), and he adopted Lamarr’s son James Markey from her previous marriage to screenwriter Gene Markey.

Loder’s other wives were Sophie Kabel, Evelyn Auff Mordt, and finally in 1958, the heiress Alba Julia Lagomarsino of Argentina, where he lived on her 25,000-acre cattle ranch and spent much time at the Jockey Club (es) in Buenos Aires. After they divorced in 1972, Loder returned to London and resided for some years in a house opposite Harrods.

In 1947, he became an American citizen. In 1959, he became a naturalised citizen of the United Kingdom, as he had been of “uncertain nationality”.

His general health deteriorated in his eighties, and he was admitted in 1982 to the Distressed Gentlefolks Aid Association’s Nursing Home in Vicarage Gate, Kensington, where he was well looked after, venturing out by taxi once a week to his London club, ‘Bucks’, in Mayfair, for luncheons. He died in London, aged 90, in 1988. His autobiography, Hollywood Hussar was published in 1977.

John Loder’s eldest son, Robin William Lowe (1925 – 29 March 2002), followed his father to Eton and served in the Grenadier Guards. He later became a theatrical and literary agent and was married three times. His last marriage was to British actress Hilary Tindall (1938–1992), who played Ann Hammond in the 1970s BBC TV series The Brothers.

Filmography

• Dancing Mad (1925) as Dance extra (uncredited)
• Madame Wants No Children (1926) as Dancer (uncredited)
• The Last Waltz (1927)
• The White Spider (1927) as Lord Gray
• The Great Unknown (1927) as Dr. Ralf Hallam
• Alraune (1928) as Der Vicomte
• Fair Game (1928) as Oberleutnant von Rohnstedt
• When the Mother and the Daughter (1928)
• Casanova’s Legacy (1928)
• The Sinner (1928) as Armand
• The First Born (1928) as Lord David Harborough
• Adam and Eve (1928)
• The Case of Lena Smith (1929) (uncredited)
• The Doctor’s Secret (1929) as Hugh Paton
• Sunset Pass (1929) as Ashleigh Preston
• Black Waters (1929) as Charles
• The Unholy Night (1929) as Capt. Dorchester
• Her Private Affair (1929) as Carl Weild
• Love, Live and Laugh (1929) as Dr. Price
• Love’s Conquest (1929) as Jack Oakhurst
• Rich People (1929) as Captain Danforth
• Lilies of the Field (1930) as Walter Harker
• The Second Floor Mystery (1930) as Fraser-Freer’s Younger Brother
• The Man Hunter (1930) as George Castle
• Sweethearts and Wives (1930) as Sam Worthington
• One Night at Susie’s (1930) as Hayes
• Are You There? (1930) as Bit Role (uncredited)
• Seas Beneath (1931) as Franz Shiller
• On the Loose (1931, short) as Mr. Loder
• Money Means Nothing (1932) as Earl Egbert
• Wedding Rehearsal (1932) as John Hopkins aka Bimbo
• La bataille (1933) as Herbert Fergan
• Money for Speed (1933) as Mitch
• You Made Me Love You (1933) as Harry Berne
• The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) as Peynell
• Paris Plane (1933)
• Rolling in Money (1934) as Lord Gawthorpe
• Love, Life and Laughter (1934) as Prince Charles
• Thunder in the East (1934) as Fergan
• Warn London (1934) as Inspector Yorke / Barraclough
• Java Head (1934) as Gerrit Ammidon
• Sing As We Go (1934) as Hugh Phillips
• My Song Goes Round the World (1934) as Rico
• Lorna Doone (1934) as John Ridd
• 18 Minutes (1935) as Trelawney
• The Silent Passenger (1935) as John Ryder
• It Happened in Paris (1935) as Paul
• Whom the Gods Love (1936) as Prince Lobkowitz
• Queen of Hearts (1936) as Derek Cooper
• Ourselves Alone (1936) as Captain Wiltshire
• Guilty Melody (1936) as Richard Carter
• The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936) as Dick Haslewood
• Sabotage (1936) as Ted
• King Solomon’s Mines (1937) as Sir Henry Curtis
• Doctor Syn (1937) as Denis Cobtree
• Non-Stop New York (1937) as Inspector Jim Grant
• Under Secret Orders (1937) as Lt. Peter Carr
• Owd Bob (1938) as David Moore
• Katia (1938) as Le tsar Alexandre II
• Paix sur le Rhin (fr) (1938) as Émile Scheffer
• Anything to Declare? (1938) as Capt. Rufus Grant
• The Silent Battle (1939) as Bordier
• Murder Will Out (1939) as Dr. Paul Raymond
• Threats (1940) as Dick Stone
• Meet Maxwell Archer (1940) as Maxwell Archer
• Adventure in Diamonds (1940) as Michael Barclay
• Diamond Frontier (1940) as Dr. Charles Clayton
• Tin Pan Alley (1940) as Reggie Carstair
• Scotland Yard (1941) as Sir John Lasher
• One Night in Lisbon (1941) as Cmdr. Peter Walmsley
• How Green Was My Valley (1941) as Ianto
• Confirm or Deny (1941) as Captain Lionel Channing
• Eagle Squadron (1942) as Paddy Carson
• Now, Voyager (1942) as Elliot Livingston
• Gentleman Jim (1942) as Carlton De Witt
• The Gorilla Man (1943) as Captain Craig Killian
• The Mysterious Doctor (1943) as Sir Henry Leland
• Murder on the Waterfront (1943) as Lt. Cmdr. Holbrook
• Adventure in Iraq (1943) as George Torrence
• Old Acquaintance (1943) as Preston Drake
• Passage to Marseille (1944) as Manning
• The Hairy Ape (1944) as Tony Lazar
• Abroad with Two Yanks (1944) as Aussie Sgt. Cyril North
• The Brighton Strangler (1945) as Reginald Parker / Edward Grey
• Jealousy (1945) as Dr. David Brent
• A Game of Death (1945) as Don Rainsford
• Woman Who Came Back (1945) as Dr. Matt Adams
• The Fighting Guardsman (1946) as Sir John Tanley
• The Wife of Monte Cristo (1946) as De Villefort, Prefect of Police
• One More Tomorrow (1946) as Owen Arthur
• Dishonored Lady (1947) as Felix Courtland
• The Story of Esther Costello (1957) as Paul Marchant
• Small Hotel (1957) as Mr. Finch
• Woman and the Hunter (1957) as Mitchell Gifford
• Gideon’s Day (1958) as The Duke
• The Secret Man (1958) as Maj. Anderson
• Allá donde el viento brama (1963)
• The Firechasers (1971) as Routledge (Last appearance)