Tom Daly

Thomas Cullen Daly (1918– 2011) was a Canadian film producer, film editor and film director, who was the head of Studio B at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). During his 44-year career, Daly produced, edited and/or directed 315 films. His remarkable awards roster includes eight BAFTA awards, eight Venice Film Festival awards, seven Cannes Film Festival awards and ten Oscar nominations. On April 27, 2000, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. Early life Thomas Cullen Daly was the second of three children born to Katherine Cullen Daly and Richard Arthur Daly. His was a prominent family; his mother was a Forest Hill socialite and his father was a stockbroker and founder of R.A. Daly and Company. Tom attended Upper Canada College and then University College, Toronto. There, he sat on the school's Art Committee and, as a member of the College Literary and Athletic Society, acted in and directed plays and musicals, and won first prize for a poem called Musician's Lament. He was also his class president and, in a 1938 address, advised fellow students to “not attempt too much...it is better to do one thing, or a few things, well.” Daly graduated in 1940 and sought to go into the field of information, or anti-propaganda communication. A year earlier, the Canadian government had created the National Film Board of Canada, which was a perfect fit for Daly's aspirations. He asked his Upper Canada College principal, the very highly regarded Terence MacDermot, for a letter of reference. MacDermot wrote directly to NFB Commissioner John Grierson, telling him that Daly was “A first-rate classical scholar...clever and quick above the average, with a ready pen and refreshing personality....Remember he can create with his pen, and his flair is dramatic. If you can find a place for a possible soldier in that (information) field, I think you would be repaid by his dog-like devotion and talents.” Daly did not see this letter until his retirement party in 1984. But he was hired and, in the fall of 1940, moved to Ottawa.