- Attended the prestigious Eton college. Once wore his old Etonian tie at a Hollywood party and told one of the inquiring guests that he was wearing it because he liked the way it matched with his suit. The host then had to explain to the indignant guest that although Loder was a Hollywood star, he did in fact attend Eton college.
- John (Loder) Lowe, a serving British officer who was in Dublin at the time of the 1916 Rising but was not directly involved in the fighting, did not take the surrender. He accompanied his father, General Lowe, to witness Patrick Pearse surrender to the general. This took place not in front of the General Post Office, Dublin, but at the corner of Parnell Street and Moore Street. There is a photograph which shows the historic moment - Pearse, accompanied by the nurse who carried the ceasefire order to the various rebel outposts in the city, facing General Lowe and his son, John (Loder).
- His father, General Lowe, was the British officer to whom Patrick Pearse, the mystical Catholic zealot and lead rebel of the Irish 1916 Rising in Dublin, surrendered, according to Colm Connolly who wrote a superlative book about Michael Collins.
- Became a U.S. Citizen in 1947
- Maternal grandfather was Sicilian, but became a British subject as his family did not accept his marriage to his younger sisters' British governess (Loder's grandmother).
- Educated at Eton and at the Royal Military College. He served with the 15th Hussars as a second lieutenant in Gallipoli.
- He and his How Green Was My Valley (1941), Confirm or Deny (1941) and Gentleman Jim (1942) co-star Arthur Shields fought on opposite sides of the Easter Rising of 1916: Loder was a second lieutenant in the British Army while Shields fought with the Irish republicans. Furthermore, Loder was the son of General William Lowe, the British officer to whom Pádraig Pearse surrendered on April 29, 1916. Shields played Pearse in The Plough and the Stars (1936).
- He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Now, Voyager (1942).
- Father of Anthony Loder.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content