In 1980, Danny Lloyd was five years old and thought he was acting in a film about a family who lived in a hotel. But in fact, he was starring in a now-iconic film alongside Jack Nicholson.

The youngster had a great time on set, he later told a journalist, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with those creepy twins between takes. None of it was scary, Lloyd explained, and everyone on set (including director Stanley Kubrick) was careful to make the experience non-scarring for the young actors and actresses.

For Danny, the memories of filming, which lasted much longer than the originally-planned 17 weeks, were like a family trip complete with Easter Egg hunts and holiday get-togethers. He and his parents (and big brother) relocated to London for filming, and it was the most exciting event in his young life.

The adorable 'The Shining' star seemed to completely disappear post-filming, however. Like other child stars, he dropped off the radar, leaving the industry at a super young age. As The Guardian reported, fans hounded Stephen King about the future of the character of Danny Torrance. In fact, their pestering prompted him to write a sequel to 'The Shining' in 2013.

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But tracking down the real Danny was tougher than writing him into another movie. While stars like Shelley Duvall are still recognizable (and have film credits over the past three decades), child actors are tough to pin down.

Case in point: Danny Lloyd had one more role as a kid (a TV drama that apparently no one watched), then vanished from horror fans' radars. But in 2019, he reemerged as a 40-something guy who resembles his childhood self very little.

Adult Dan Lloyd from The Shining

Intrepid reporters tracked Dan Lloyd down (he doesn't go by Danny anymore) and got him to give an interview in 2017. To fans' surprise, hardly any of the rumors about the now-adult Dan are even remotely true.

The dad of four is a teacher these days, living a low-key life. He teaches biology to community college students, who often tease him a bit when they find out about his acting history. It's mostly the old haircut from 'The Shining' that amuses his teen kids, though.

Dan Lloyd from The Shining holding up a placard from The Overlook

And Dan harbors no ill-will toward anyone he worked with, even if they never sent him that iconic tricycle as promised after the film wrapped. After all, working with kids wasn't what made filming 'The Shining' difficult for Stanley Kubrick.

But in 2019, Danny did make a reappearance on the big screen. In his first project on film in over 38 years, Dan Lloyd had a cameo in the sequel to 'The Shining.'  Producers found and slated Dan Lloyd for 'Spectator' by searching for him on Twitter, Variety reported. And horror fans were absolutely delighted.

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