Leander De Cordova

(b. Kingston, Jamaica , 05/12/1877 – d. Los Angeles, 19/09/1969). American actor and director. According to The Film Daily of 24 April 1921, previous to making motion pictures, Leander De Cordova was an actor “on the speaking stage”, including a 1916 dramatisation of Ben Hur at the Manhattan Opera House. In 1921 African Film Productions recruited him to direct the film version of H. Rider Haggard’s novel “Swallow: a tale of the Great Trek”, a production for which Joan Morgan and Hayford Hobbs were brought out from England. Prior to that he had been assistant director on a few forgotten films and had directed three himself, while after Swallow (1922) he had another encounter with Haggard when he and British producer G.B. Samuelson co-directed one of the many versions of She (1925), this one starring Betty Blythe. He made his last film as director in 1931 and afterwards returned to acting, frequently uncredited, but most notably in the serial Zorro’s Fighting Legion (1939). Interestingly, The Film Daily of 16 January 1922 makes a reference to “several pictures” he made for AFP. Though Swallow was the only feature, in an article written for The Film Daily of 9 May 1921, De Cordova describes his experiences of filming in Basutoland and Thelma Gutsche makes mention of a documentary entitled Peep into Basutoland that was released by AFP a year or two later. (FO)