Stanley Kubrick’s hit horror movie, The Shining, owes much of its success to the contrast between the childish creepiness of the Grady twins, and the childish innocence of five year old Danny Torrance (real name Danny Lloyd). That jarring juxtaposition helped elevate the movie from just another horror flick, and transformed it into an insta-classic that can still thrill viewers four decades later. A five year old Lloyd was selected for the role of Jack Torrance’s (Jack Nicholson) son because, unlike most kids his age, he could stay focused for extended periods of time. Below are some interesting facts about Danny, and his post-Shining life.
Danny Didn’t Know He Was Acting in a Horror Movie
Lloyd was six when he and his family were flown to London for filming. They thought it would be a relatively brief process, but the perfectionist Kubrick re-shot scene after scene, until nearly a year had passed on set. Throughout, Lloyd was unaware that he was in a horror movie: his parents and Kubrick led him to believe that it was just a movie about a family in a hotel. He did not see the actual film until he was ten or eleven-years-old.
Lloyd’s performance was well received, but it did not lead to an acting career. After The Shining, he appeared in just one more film, Will: G. Gordon Liddy, a TV movie in which he played the young Liddy. He then quit acting and disappeared from public view. In the following years, Stephen King was so frequently pestered by fans about the fate of little Danny Torrance, that he wrote a sequel in 2013, Doctor’s Sleep.
As to the real life Danny, Danny Lloyd, the question of his fate buzzed around the internet for years. Fake news abounded about just what had happened to him, and where he had disappeared to. As he recently told an interviewer: “I once read that I had six kids and was a pig farmer”, before going on to note “that is not entirely accurate”. In reality, after he quit acting, Lloyd led a pretty prosaic and run of the mill life.
Danny Torrance Became a College Professor
After he graduated high school, Lloyd went to college, and to help pay for tuition, he worked in a Walmart and drove a tractor in a hog farm – the latter was the origin of the rumors about his being a pig farmer. In 2007, he became a biology professor at a community college in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. He still teaches there today, often downplaying his role as “that kid from The Shining”.
Lloyd has fond memories of his time on the film set. His time on the film set of The Shining was a remarkable and interesting chapter of his childhood. However, it never came to define the rest of his life. Fortunately for Danny, his parents were not stage parents. When he told them he was done, they were fine with it, and ensured that he had a normal upbringing.
Reflecting on how life panned out, he stated: “I don’t regret trying acting. When I decided to stop, I don’t regret that either. At the end of the day, it’s not a huge deal. Well, it is and it isn’t. I still have to grade the tests at school, get the kids to bed. All the regular stuff“. As of 2025, Dan Lloyd – he outgrew and ditched the “Danny” long ago – has four children, including teenagers who frequently tease their now balding father about his bowl haircut in The Shining.
_________________
Some Sources & Further Reading
Business Insider, October 31st, 2020 – Then and Now: The Cast of ‘The Shining’ 40 Years Later
History Halls – The Grady Twins From ‘The Shining’
