Sam Lloyd Jr. dies at 56: Weston native, GM grad and actor/musician remembered for uplifting spirit

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Sam Lloyd Jr., an actor and musician who moved easily between comedy and drama, stage and screen and Hollywood and his hometown of Weston, Vermont, died on Thursday, April 30 at a respiratory care facility in Los Angeles with his wife Vanessa by his side and his sister Laurel Facetiming from her home in New Hampshire. According to a GoFundMe page set up to help with Mr. Lloyd’s medical expenses, the cause was complications of lung cancer. He was 56.

Known to most for his many television roles including Scrubs, Desperate Housewives, Malcolm in the Middle and The West Wing, he was known in this area as a childhood friend, a classmate at Green Mountain Union High School, a regular on the stage at the Weston Playhouse, the bassist for the Beatles tribute band the Butties and for many, often hilarious performances at the Act IV Cabaret that followed many of the shows at the Playhouse.

Most recently, in 2017 Mr. Lloyd played a number of characters – including Bing Crosby and Jose Ferrar – opposite Susan Haefner in Tenderly, a play with songs about the life of Rosemary Clooney, at the Weston Rod and Gun Club. Chester Telegraph theater critic David Lampe-Wilson praised his performance, writing “Lloyd morphs from one character to the next using small gestures and vocal changes, offering us a master class in subtle characterization.”

After bringing such nuance to one intimate stage, Mr. Lloyd could be found at the Act IV Cabaret in the basement of the Weston Playhouse, performing broad and outrageous comedy including a bit in which he was crowned “Little Miss Bellows Falls,” and several others with a puppet alter ego called “eyesteeth” so called because that was all it was made up of.

“Anyone who was lucky enough to be Sam’s friend always left their time with him feeling better about themselves,” Haefner  said on Sunday. “Along with making me laugh pretty much constantly, he taught me how to listen and truly be in the moment, on stage and off.”

“I was lucky to share the stage with Sam one last time this past January (2020), in Tenderly at Playhouse on Park in Connecticut. So many friends and family from all over came to the show, cheered us on … a testament to how deeply he is loved. Sam will be in our hearts and tickling our funny bones always.”

A week after the show ended, according to a statement from his wife, Mr. Lloyd was re-admitted to the hospital for the final time.

According to the GoFundMe page, Mr. Lloyd was diagnosed with lung cancer that metastasized to his brain, liver, spine and jaw in January 2019 and initially his illness responded to new targeted therapy drug. For 13 months he was able to live and see his newborn son, Weston, grow as well as be with his mother at her death.

At the end of 2019, the effectiveness of the therapy ended and Mr. Lloyd endured a number of brain surgeries. Eventually he slipped into a coma for two months.

Remembered here as one of the guys

Coming to Green Mountain, Sam and Andover resident John Yake met as freshmen.

“Sam has always been just one of the guys to me,” said Yake. “We flunked ninth grade English together.”

After graduating in 1981, Yake said, it was “kind of cool to follow him as things started to happen. The first time I saw him on TV he was in a Huey Lewis and the News video and then he was on Seinfeld. But we would see him every time he came home.”

Yake said that he and Mr. Lloyd had bands in school and Lloyd had borrowed the bass drum head cover from Yake’s band Crank. When he was home in June and playing at J.J. Hapgood in Peru, Mr. Lloyd told Yake that he was still using it for the Butties and that one day that logo would melt away to reveal Crank again.

“We were buddies — no pun intended — he never talked about himself,” said Yake. “He always wanted to hear about my family.”

Mr. Lloyd was born on Nov. 12, 1963 to Marianna McGuffin and Samuel Lloyd Sr. He was raised in Weston, and after graduating from Green Mountain, he attended Syracuse University.

Mr. Lloyd was predeceased by his father and mother as well as his brother Jackson Lloyd. He is survived by his wife Vanessa, son Weston and three sisters, Laurel Lloyd, Robin Lloyd and Sandra Yaple.