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. Additionally, he starred in the Mike Shayne detective films, and the groundbreaking sitcom Julia starring Diahann Carroll.
Film career 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." 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.
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. 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.
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.
Television 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, 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 sitcom on ABC 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 Payment", and in the pilot episode of Mannix.
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.
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.
In his later years, Nolan appeared in commercials for Polident.
Personal life Nolan married Mell Efrid in 1933. They had a daughter Melinda who gave them two grandchildren, and a son Jay. The couple remained married for 48 years until Efrid's death in 1981. In 1983, Nolan married Virginia Dabney, with whom he remained until his death.
Nolan’s son Jay Nolan had autism and was institutionalized at a private institution at age 13. He died at age 26 from choking while eating. 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. In a 2026 interview for The New York Times, Sylvester Stallone noted that during his time spent in a reform school as a teenager, he once encountered Jay, who attempted to sexually assault him.
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. Nolan founded the Jay Nolan Autistic Center (now known as Jay Nolan Community Services) in honor of his son, and was chairman of the annual Save Autistic Children Telethon.
In 1964, Nolan spoke at the "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los 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. 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?" 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. "Project Prayer" was ultimately unsuccessful in its campaign to keep public prayer in public schools.
A lifelong Republican, Nolan appeared alongside Ronald Reagan during the 1976 New Hampshire presidential primary in which he nearly scored an upset against President Gerald Ford.
Death
A long-time cigar and pipe smoker, Nolan died of lung cancer on September 27, 1985, at his home in Brentwood, California; he was 83. He is interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
Filmography
Film Year Title Role Notes 1935 G Men Hugh Farrell Stolen Harmony Chesty Burrage Atlantic Adventure Dan Miller She Couldn't Take It Tex One Way Ticket Jerry 1936 You May Be Next Neil Bennett Lady of Secrets Michael Harvey Big Brown Eyes Russ Cortig Devil's Squadron Dana Kirk Counterfeit Capper Stevens The Texas Rangers Sam 'Polka Dot' McGee 15 Maiden Lane Det. Sgt. Walsh 1937 Internes Can't Take Money Hanlon King of Gamblers Jim Adams Exclusive Charles Gillette Ebb Tide Attwater Every Day's a Holiday John Quade Wells Fargo Dal Slade 1938 Dangerous to Know Inspector Brandon Tip-Off Girls Bob Anders Hunted Men Joe Albany Prison Farm Larry Harrison King of Alcatraz Raymond Grayson 1939 Ambush Tony Andrews St. Louis Blues Dave Geurney Undercover Doctor Robert Anders The Magnificent Fraud Sam Barr 1940 The Man Who Wouldn't Talk Joe Monday The House Across the Bay Slant Kolma Johnny Apollo Mickey Dwyer Gangs of Chicago Matthew J. 'Matty' Burns The Man I Married Kenneth Delane The Golden Fleecing Gus Fender Pier 13 Danny Dolan Charter Pilot King Morgan Michael Shayne, Private Detective Michael Shayne Behind the News Stuart Woodrow 1941 Mr. Dynamite Tommy N. Thornton / Mr. Dynamite Sleepers West Michael Shayne Dressed to Kill Michael Shayne Buy Me That Town Rickey Deane Blues in the Night Del Davis Steel Against the Sky Rocky Evans 1942 Saboteur Frank Fry Blue, White and Perfect Michael Shayne The Man Who Wouldn't Die Michael Shayne It Happened in Flatbush Frank 'Butterfingers' Maguire Just Off Broadway Michael Shayne Apache Trail Trigger Bill Folliard Manila Calling Lucky Matthews Time to Kill Michael Shayne 1943 Bataan Corp. Barney Todd Don't Be a Sucker Commentator Short film Guadalcanal Diary Sgt. Hook Malone 1944 Attack! The Battle of New Britain Narrator (voice) Documentary Resisting Enemy Interrogation USAF Debriefing Officer / Narrator Uncredited 1945 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Officer McShane Circumstantial Evidence Sam Lord War Comes to America Narrator (voice) Documentary Captain Eddie Lt. Jim Whittaker The House on 92nd Street Inspector George A. Briggs 1946 Somewhere in the Night Police Lt. Donald Kendall Two Smart People Bob Simms 1947 Lady in the Lake Lt. DeGarmot Wild Harvest Kink 1948 Green Grass of Wyoming Rob McLaughlin The Street with No Name Inspector George A. Briggs 1949 The Sun Comes Up Thomas I. Chandler Bad Boy Marshall Brown Easy Living Lenahan 1951 The Lemon Drop Kid Oxford Charlie 1953 Island in the Sky Captain Stutz Crazylegs Win Brockmeyer 1956 The Last Hunt Woodfoot Santiago Clay Pike Alternative title: The Gun Runner Toward the Unknown Brig. Gen. Bill Banner Alternative title: Brink of Hell 1957 Seven Waves Away Frank Kelly Alternative titles: Abandon ShipSeven Days From Now A Hatful of Rain John Pope Sr. Peyton Place Dr. Matthew Swain 1960 Portrait in Black Matthew S. Cabot Girl of the Night Dr. Mitchell 1961 Susan Slade Roger Slade 1962 We Joined the Navy Vice Admiral Ryan 1963 The Girl Hunters Agent Arthur Rickerby 1964 Circus World Cap Carson Alternative title: The Magnificent Showman 1965 Never Too Late Mayor Crane 1966 An American Dream Barney Kelly Alternative title: See You in Hell, Darling 1967 The Double Man Edwards 1968 Sergeant Ryker Gen. Amos Bailey Ice Station Zebra Admiral Garvey 1970 Airport Harry Standish 1974 Earthquake Dr. James Vance 1975 The Sky's the Limit Cornwall 1977 The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover Harlan F. Stone 1978 My Boys Are Good Boys Officer Dan Mountgomery 1980 Galyon Willard Morgan 1985 Prince Jack Joe Kennedy 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters Evan
Television