Career
Lord received training from Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He worked first as a car salesman for Horgan Ford, then later as a Cadillac salesman in New York to fund his studies. Later he studied at the Actor's Studio.
His Broadway debut was as Slim Murphy in Horton Foote's The Traveling Lady with Kim Stanley. The show ran for 30 performances, October 27, 1954 through November 20, 1954. Lord won the Theatre World Award for his performance. Lord was then cast as Brick in a replacement for Ben Gazzara in the 1955–1956 production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He had been in The Little Hut (his first play), The Illegitimist, and The Savage.
His first commercial film role was in the 1949 film The Red Menace a.k.a. Project X, an anti-Communist production. He was associate producer in his 1950 film Cry Murder. In 1957, Lord starred in Williamsburg: the Story of a Patriot, which has run daily at Colonial Williamsburg since then. In 1958, Lord co-starred as Buck Walden in God's Little Acre, the film adaptation of Erskine Caldwell's 1933 novel.
Lord was the first actor to play the character Felix Leiter in the James Bond film series, introduced in the first Bond film, Dr. No. According to screenwriter Richard Maibaum, Lord demanded co-star billing, a bigger role and more money to reprise the role in Goldfinger, which resulted in director Guy Hamilton casting the role to an older actor to make Leiter more of an American "M".
In 1962, Lord starred as series namesake Stoney Burke, a rodeo cowboy from Mission Ridge, South Dakota. The basis for the series was real-life champion rodeo rider Casey Tibbs. The series featured Warren Oates and Bruce Dern in recurring supporting roles. Lord credited Gary Cooper as his on-screen role model, and the inspiration for his characterization of Stoney Burke.
Lord was considered for Eliot Ness in The Untouchables before Robert Stack won the role. In 1965 he guest-starred as Colonel 'Pres' Gallagher in second season episode 5, "Big Brother" of 12 O-Clock High (TV series). Other television guest appearances include Appointment with Adventure, Bonanza, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Reporter starring Harry Guardino, The Fugitive, The Invaders, Rawhide, Ironside, and The F.B.I. Lord appeared on the first episode of Have Gun, Will Travel. In 1968, Lord appeared with Susan Strasberg in the film The Name of the Game is Kill.
According to William Shatner, in 1966, Gene Roddenberry offered Lord the role of Captain Kirk on Star Trek, to replace Jeffrey Hunter whose wife was making too many demands. Lord asked for 50 percent ownership of the show, so Roddenberry offered the role to Shatner.
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