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{{Short description|Canadian film director (1894–1970)}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Del Lord
| image         = Del Lord.jpg
| imagesize     = 
| caption       = 
| birthname     = Delmer Lord
| birth_date     = {{Birth date|1894|10|7|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Grimsby, Ontario]], Canada
| death_date     = {{Death date and age|1970|3|23|1894|10|7}}
| death_place    = [[Calabasas, California]], United States
| height        = 
| othername     = 
| yearsactive   = 
| spouse        = 
| homepage      = 
| occupation = [[Film director]], actor
}}

'''Delmer "Del" Lord''' (October 7, 1894{{spaced ndash}}March 23, 1970) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[film director]] and actor best known as a director of [[Three Stooges]] films.

==Career==
Delmer Lord was born in the small town of [[Grimsby, Ontario]], Canada. Interested in the theatre, he traveled to [[New York City]], then when fellow Canadian [[Mack Sennett]] offered him a job at his new [[Keystone Studios]], Lord went on to work in [[Hollywood, California]]. There he played the driver of the [[Keystone Cops]] police van, appearing in many of the Cops' successful films.

Given a chance to direct, Del Lord became a specialist in automotive gags, rigging cars to explode, crash, fall apart, or dangle in precarious positions. Lord was responsible for a number of very successful comedies for Keystone and directed two feature films for [[Universal Pictures]]. However, the [[Great Depression]] plagued the film industry with budget cuts, and Sennett was forced to close his studio in 1933. [[Hal Roach]] launched a brief series of slapstick comedies with "The Taxi Boys" ([[Clyde Cook (actor)|Clyde Cook]], [[Billy Gilbert]], [[Billy Bevan]], and other expressive comedians), and these films required outlandish visual gags and a fleet of crazy cars. Del Lord was the ideal man to direct, and he worked on these comedies exclusively for a year. After leaving Roach, Lord joined producer Phil Ryan's short-comedy unit at [[Paramount Pictures]]. During the summer of 1934, Lord took a job selling used cars at a relative's automobile agency. Producer [[Jules White]], shopping for a Buick, encountered Lord at the agency and hired him to work at [[Columbia Pictures]].<ref>David Bruskin, ''Behind the Three Stooges: The White Brothers'', Directors Guild of America, 1993. {{ISBN|1-882766-00-8}}</ref>

From 1935 to 1945, Lord directed some of Columbia's fastest and funniest two-reelers and is credited with developing the unique comic style of the [[Three Stooges]]. In addition to more than three dozen Stooges films, he directed or co-produced more than 200 motion pictures. 

In 1936, a Canadian law required that American studios would have to release a certain quota of Canadian-made films in order to distribute their own Hollywood productions in Canada.<ref>Ted Magder, Piers Handling, Peter Morris, "Canadian Film History: 1896 to 1938," ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', January 10, 2012.</ref> Columbia, anxious to exert some control over the quality of the films, sent some of its actors and crew members to Canada, including its Canadian-born employees. Del Lord made one feature film there, ''What Price Vengeance'' (1937).

Columbia promoted Lord to feature films in 1944. Most of Lord's Columbia features are action melodramas rather than slapstick comedies; he may have gotten these assignments based on his handling of his one previous Columbia feature, ''What Price Vengeance''.

In 1945, [[Monogram Pictures]] announced that Del Lord would produce and direct its feature-length musical ''[[Swing Parade of 1946]]'', which would feature the Three Stooges.<ref>''Showmen's Trade Review'', May 26, 1945, p. 60.</ref> Lord withdrew from the project, and Monogram assigned him to a [[The Bowery Boys|Bowery Boys]] comedy, ''[[In Fast Company (1946 film)|In Fast Company]]'' (1946). 

In 1946, comedy star [[Hugh Herbert]], then working in Columbia's short comedies, clashed with director [[Edward Bernds]] and refused to work with Bernds any longer. Producer [[Hugh McCollum]] asked Del Lord to return temporarily to the studio's short-subjects department, where he directed eight comedies with Herbert and one with the Stooges. <ref>[[Ted Okuda]] with Edward Watz, ''The Columbia Comedy Shorts'', McFarland, 1986, p. 148. {{ISBN|0-7864-0577-5}}</ref> In 1952, Lord directed Buster Keaton in an industrial featurette, ''A Paradise for Buster''. Del Lord can be seen in an episode of TV's ''[[This Is Your Life (American franchise)|This Is Your Life]]'', honoring Lord's old boss Mack Sennett.

==Death==
Del Lord died on March 23, 1970, in [[Calabasas, California]], and is interred in the [[Olivewood Memorial Park]], in [[Riverside, California]].

==In popular culture==
Two rock bands took their names from the Stooges' frequently credited director: the Del-Lourds of New Jersey (1963){{cn|date=February 2025}} and [[The Del-Lords]] of New York City (1983–90 and 2010–13).

==Selected filmography==
{{div col}}
*''Lizzies of the Field'' (1924)<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lizzies+of+the+field+ ''Lizzies of the Field'' - Del Lord, 1924 VOSE, YouTube]</ref>
*''[[Topsy and Eva]]'' (1927)
*''[[Lost at the Front]]'' (1927)
*''[[Barnum Was Right]]'' (1929)
*''[[The Loud Mouth]]'' (1932)
*''[[Oh, My Nerves]]'' (1935)
*''[[The Three Stooges]]'' shorts (1935–1948, more than three dozen films)
*''[[Trapped by Television]]'' (1936)
*''[[Vengeance (1937 film)|Vengeance]]'' (1937)
*''[[Kansas City Kitty]]'' (1944)
*''[[Let's Go Steady]]'' (1945)
* ''[[I Love a Bandleader]]'' (1945)
* ''[[Rough, Tough and Ready]]'' (1945)
*''[[Singin' in the Corn]]'' (1946)
*''[[In Fast Company (1946 film)|In Fast Company]]'' (1946)	
*''[[It's Great to Be Young (1946 film)|It's Great to Be Young]]'' (1946)
{{div col end}}

==See also==
*[[Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
{{commons category|Del Lord}}
*{{Find a Grave|6604886|Del Lord|work=Motion picture director|date=July 14, 2002|access-date=July 1, 2011}}
*{{IMDb name|0520419}}


{{ThreeStooges}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lord, Del}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1970 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Olivewood Memorial Park]]
[[Category:Film directors from Ontario]]
[[Category:Canadian male film actors]]
[[Category:Male actors from Ontario]]
[[Category:People from Grimsby, Ontario]]
[[Category:Canadian expatriate male actors in the United States]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian male actors]]
[[Category:Columbia Pictures people]]
[[Category:Canadian comedy film directors]]