Thomas Cullen Daly, OC (April 25, 1918 – September 18, 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 The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...

(NFB) in the 1950s and 1960s. On April 27, 2000, he was honored by being made an Officer in the OC (Order of Canada). During his 44-year career at the NFB, Daly produced and executive-produced more than 300 films."NFB pioneer Tom Daly dies at age 93."
''

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...

'' September 21, 2011. Retrieved: May 2, 2016.

Early years

Daly learned the art of film editing from filmmaker Stuart Legg and documentary pioneer and NFB founder

John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Fl ...

, who had hired Daly in 1940 directly following his graduation from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. Daly was passionate about assisting in the NFB's war effort. Grierson was apparently taken with Daly's intellect and bookish manner and brought him aboard as a production assistant, joking calling him "the best butler in the business", an expression which would serve as the title for film scholar D.B. Jones's decades later book on Daly, ''The Best Butler in the Business: Tom Daly of the National Film Board of Canada''.Brownstein, Bill
"Looking back on the work of Tom Daly."
''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

'', October 5, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2016.

Unit B

As head of the NFB's Unit B, Daly was involved in, or responsible for, numerous milestones and achievements in both documentary and animation film art, including

Cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ; "truthful cinema") is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or ...

and Direct Cinema productions. He was also heavily involved in the multi-projector cinematic presentation '' In the Labyrinth'', which eventually led to the development of

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme ...

. Daly was persuaded to put aside his studio responsibilities for a year and a half to edit ''In the Labyrinth''. Daly also produced such works as Colin Low's ''

Corral A pen is an enclosure for holding livestock. It may also perhaps be used as a term for an enclosure for other animals such as pets that are unwanted inside the house. The term describes types of enclosures that may confine one or many animal ...

'',

Wolf Koenig Wolf Koenig (October 17, 1927 – June 26, 2014) was a Canadian film director, producer, animator, cinematographer, and a pioneer in Direct Cinema at the National Film Board of Canada. Early life Born in Dresden, Germany, Koenig emigrated to Ca ...

and

Roman Kroitor Roman Kroitor (December 12, 1926 – September 17, 2012) was a Canadian filmmaker who was known as an early practitioner of ''cinéma vérité'', as co-founder of IMAX, and as creator of the Sandde hand-drawn stereoscopic animation system. ...

’s '' Lonely Boy'', Koenig and Low’s '' City of Gold'', Kroitor and Low’s ''Universe'', Arthur Lipsett’s '' Very Nice, Very Nice'',

Robin Spry Robin Spry (October 25, 1939 – March 28, 2005) was a Canadian film director and television producer and screenwriter. Spry was perhaps best known for his documentary films '' Action: The October Crisis of 1970'' and '' Reaction: A Portrait of ...

's '' One Man'', and

Gerald Potterton Gerald Potterton (8 March 1931 – 23 August 2022) was a British–Canadian director, writer, producer and animator. He is best known for directing the cult classic '' Heavy Metal'' and his animation work on '' Yellow Submarine''. Potterton w ...

’s animated short ''

My Financial Career ''My Financial Career'' is a 1962 animated short directed by Gerald Potterton, based on a story of the same name from Stephen Leacock's ''Literary Lapses'' collection of short fiction. The six and a half minute film takes a humorous look at a you ...

''. Daly also served as executive producer on ''

Candid Eye ''Candid Eye'' is a Canadian documentary television series which aired on CBC Television in 1958. Production Wolf Koenig, Terence Macartney-Filgate, and Stanley Jackson filmed ''The Days Before Christmas'' in December 1957, and the Canadian Br ...

'', a 14-part cinema-vérité series made between 1958 and 1961. Daly ran a mixed-discipline studio that included many of the most talented Canadian film-makers of the time, including an animation group with

Norman McLaren William Norman McLaren, LL. D. (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).Rosenthal, Alan. ''The new documentary in action: a caseb ...

, Don Arioli, and

Robert Verrall Robert Verrall (born January 13, 1928 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian animator, director, film producer and administrator who worked with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1945 until the 1980s. One of the first to join the NFB's fled ...

; a documentary team including Roman Kroitor and

Terence Macartney-Filgate Terence Macartney-Filgate (6 August 1924 – 11 July 2022) was a British-Canadian film director who directed, wrote, produced or shot more than 100 films in a career spanning more than 50 years. Early life Born in England, Macartney-Filgate l ...

. Both Colin Low and Wolf Koenig worked at various times in both areas.

Retirement and death

In 1980, Daly received an honorary doctorate from

Concordia University Concordia University (French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

. He was appointed an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

in 2000. He died on September 18, 2011, after a lengthy illness, at the Chateau Westmount residence in Westmount, Quebec."NFB marks death of documentary pioneer Tom Daly."
''Canada News Wire'', September 211, 2011. Retrieved: May 2, 2016.

References

Bibliography

* Ellis, Jack C. ''John Grierson: Life, Contributions, Influence''. Carbondale, Illinois:

Southern Illinois University Press Southern Illinois University Press or SIU Press, founded in 1956, is a university press located in Carbondale, Illinois, owned and operated by Southern Illinois University. The press publishes approximately 50 titles annually, among its more tha ...

, 2000. . * Evans, Gary. ''John Grierson and the National Film Board: The Politics of Wartime Propaganda''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984. . * Jones, D.B. ''The Best Butler in the Business: Tom Daly of the National Film Board of Canada''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996. . * Khouri, Malek. ''Filming Politics: Communism and the Portrayal of the Working Class at the National Film Board of Canada, 1939-46.'' Calgary, Alberta, Canada: University of Calgary Press, 2007. . * McInnes, Graham. ''One Man's Documentary: A Memoir of the Early Years of the National Film Board''. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba, 2004. .

External links

*
Films directed by Tom Daly
at the

"Final farewell to prolific NFB filmmaker and producer Tom Daly"
National Film Board of Canada {{DEFAULTSORT:Daly, Tom Officers of the Order of Canada 1918 births 2011 deaths Canadian film producers Film directors from Ontario Canadian film editors Canadian animated film directors Canadian animated film producers National Film Board of Canada people Canadian documentary film producers University of Toronto alumni Film directors from Toronto Anglophone Quebec people People from Westmount, Quebec Film directors from Quebec