Fred de Cordova
American stage, motion picture and television director and producer (1910-2001)
Frederick Timmins de Cordova (October 27, 1910 – September 15, 2001) was an American stage, motion picture and television director and producer. He is best known for his work on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Early life
De Cordova was born in New York City, New York, the son of Margaret (née Timmins) and George de Cordova, who worked in the theatre business. George de Cordova was from a Jamaican Sephardic Jewish family related to Julian de Cordova, founder of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and Waco, Texas, founder Jacob de Cordova. In his 1988 autobiography, de Cordova described his parents as con artists who, during his early years, lived well and skipped town without paying their bills. In 1931, he received an undergraduate degree in liberal arts from Northwestern University.
Career
De Cordova's first theater credit was as a performer in Elmer, the Great (1928). After his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1933, he gained employment in the Shubert Theater organization for the next ten years. He was variously a performer, stage manager, stage director, and finally, dialogue director, the last for Ziegfeld Follies of 1943.
He was a dialogue director in five films, including To Have and Have Not (1944).
The public source identifies “Fred de Cordova” as american stage, motion picture and television director and producer (1910-2001). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fred, Cordova and American.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Fred de Cordova”, the useful work is to connect “american stage, motion picture and television director and producer (1910-2001)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q443351. VIAF identifies the subject as 5729442. The Library of Congress control number is n86140066. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1910, 2001, 1988 and 1931.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Fred de Cordova”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Fred de Cordova primary sources, Fred de Cordova archive and Fred research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Fred de Cordova”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Fred de Cordova” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.