Danny Lloyd

Danny Lloyd starred in only one major theatrical film -- but that sole credit happened to be Stanley Kubrick's much-debated version of The Shining (1980). After one of Kubrick's assistants conducted a several-month search through the Midwest for an unknown to play Danny Torrance, Illinois-born Lloyd was chosen from 5,000 candidates via a videotaped audition. Despite having no prior acting experience, Lloyd proved eerily effective as the psychic child who senses something seriously wrong at the Overlook Hotel. Whether impassively riding through the hotel corridors on his Big Wheel, fleeing Jack Nicholson in a snowy maze or (most memorably) croaking "REDRUM" through his finger, Lloyd's solemn visage conveyed the young Torrance's unfathomable fear at being subject to forces he can't quite handle. Though reviews were sharply divided over Nicholson's hysteria-pitch performance (not to mention Kubrick's changes to Stephen King's novel), Lloyd remained critically unscathed. Except for an appearance as the young Liddy in the TV film Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (1982), Lloyd has not acted since. - Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide