Peter Lord

Peter Lord, CBE (born 4 November 1953) is an English animator, film producer, director and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring plasticine duo Wallace and Gromit. He also directed The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! which was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards.

For the art historian, see Peter Lord (art historian).

Peter Lord

CBE
Lord in 2014 demonstrating Morph
Born (1953-11-04) 4 November 1953
Bristol, England, UK
NationalityBritish
OccupationAnimator, film producer, director
Notable work
Wallace and Gromit, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
Signature

Lord is the executive producer of every Aardman work, including Chicken Run, Arthur Christmas and Flushed Away.

Life and career

Lord was born in Bristol, England. In co-operation with David Sproxton, a friend of his youth, he realised his dream of "making and taking an animated movie". He graduated in English from the University of York in 1976.[1] He and Sproxton founded Aardman as a low-budget backyard studio, producing shorts and trailers for publicity. Their work was first shown as part of the BBC TV series Vision On. In 1977 they created Morph, a stop-motion animated character made of Plasticine, who was usually a comic foil to the TV presenter Tony Hart. With his amoral friend Chas, he appeared in a series of children's art programmes including Take Hart, Hartbeat and Smart. From 1980 to 1981, Morph appeared in his own TV series The Amazing Adventures of Morph.

Experiments with animated clay characters synchronised with 'live' recorded soundtracks led to a series of films in the style of animated documentary. The first two were part of the BBC TV series Animated Conversations and were called "Down and Out" (1977) and "Confessions of a Foyer Girl" (1978) . These were followed in 1983 by Conversation Pieces, a series of five-minute long films produced for Channel 4. They were called "On Probation", Sales Pitch, "Palmy Days", "Late Edition" and "Early Bird".

In 1985 Nick Park joined the group.

Lord, Park and Sproxton developed and finalised their style of detailed and lovingly designed clay animation characters from stop motion techniques (though directed by Stephen Johnson their claymation is shown in the music video "Sledgehammer" (1986) by Peter Gabriel). In 1991 Lord animated Adam, a 6-minute clay animation that was nominated for an Academy Award. Park created the "odd-couple" Wallace and Gromit-shorts in co-operation with Lord and Sproxton. All three together worked as producers, editors and directors. Other awarded productions by Peter Lord are Chicken Run (2000), the first feature film from Aardman and the Academy Award-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).

In 2006, Lord, Sproxton and Park were all given "the Freedom of the City of Bristol". In that same year, Lord (along with Sproxton) visited the "Aardman Exhibit" at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, where he met Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki has long been a fan of the Aardman Animation works.[2][3] In 2013 Lord was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards for Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Lord was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 17 June 2006.

On 9 July 2015, Lord received a Gold Blue Peter badge.[4]

In August 2016, Lord was appointed a visiting professorship at Volda University College.[5]

Three of Lord's films–War Story, Adam, and Wat's Pig–have been preserved by the Academy Film Archive.[6]

Filmography

Feature films
Year Film Director Producer Writer Other Notes
2000 Chicken Run
Y
Y
Y
 Story
2005 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Y
2006 Flushed Away
Y
Y
 Story
2011 Arthur Christmas
Y
2012 The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
Y
Y
Y
 Actor: "Additional voices"
2013 The Croods
Y
 Special thanks
2015 Shaun the Sheep Movie
Y
 Executive producer
2018 Early Man
Y

TV series
Year Title Notes
1977 Take Hart Animator
1977-1978 Animated Conversations Director; animator
1986 Pee-wee's Playhouse Animation director
1986 No. 73 Himself
1995 The Morph Files Director; executive producer
1998 Rex the Runt Executive producer
2000 Omnibus Himself
2000 The Panel Himself
2002 Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions Executive producer
2003-2006 Creature Comforts Executive producer
2006 Planet Earth Thanks
2006 Purple and Brown Executive producer
2007 The Peculiar Adventures of Hector Executive producer
2007–present Shaun the Sheep Executive producer
2008 Chop Socky Chooks Executive producer
2009-2012 Timmy Time Executive producer
2010 Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention Executive producer
2014–present Morph Executive producer; script writer

Shorts
Year Title Notes
1983 Sales Pitch Director; animator
1983 On Probation Director; producer; animator
1983 Palmy Days Director; animator
1983 Late Edition Director; animator
1983 Early Bird Director; animator
1986 Sledgehammer Animator
1986 Babylon Director; animator
1987 My Baby Just Cares for Me Director
1989 War Story Director; animator
1989 A Grand Day Out Special thanks
1990 Going Equipped Director; animator
1992 Adam Director; writer; executive producer; art director; animator; model maker
1992 Never Say Pink Furry Die Executive producer
1993 Loves Me, Loves Me Not Executive producer
1993 The Wrong Trousers Executive producer; additional animator
1993 Not Without My Handbag Executive producer
1995 Pib and Pog Executive producer
1995 A Close Shave Executive producer
1996 Wat's Pig Director; writer; executive producer; animator
1997 Stage Fright Executive producer
1997 Owzat Executive producer
1999 Humdrum Executive producer
1999 Minotaur and Little Nerkin Thanks
2001 Chunga Chui Leopard Beware Executive producer
2001 Ernest Executive producer
2005 Tales for the Rest of Us Executive producer
2005 Ramble On Executive producer
2006 Off Beat Executive producer
2007 The Pearce Sisters Executive producer
2008 A Matter of Loaf and Death Executive producer
2011 The Itch of the Golden Nit Executive producer
2011 Pythagasaurus Executive producer
2012 So You Want to Be a Pirate! Executive producer
2015 Heroes of Christmas Inspiration
2015 Special Delivery Story; creative director; voice of "Santa"
2015 Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas Executive producer

Books
  • Peter Lord & Brian Sibley: Cracking Animation (1998) Thames & Hudson; ISBN 0-500-28168-8

References
  1. "University of York press release". york.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 9 May 2006. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
  2. Mulrooney, Marty. "INTERVIEW – In Conversation With Merlin Crossingham, Lead Animator at Aardman Animation". Alternative Magazine. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  3. "Aardman exhibits, new Miyazaki anime on view". The Japan Times. 24 November 2006. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  4. http://www.animationmagazine.net/people/peter-lord-earns-blue-peter-badge/
  5. Brandal, Per Arne. "– Mr. Aardman, Peter Lord, appointed professor in Volda". www.hivolda.no (in Norwegian Nynorsk). Archived from the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  6. "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
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