At age 13, she debuted professionally with the Belasco Stock Company in the play
Are You a Mason? where her first role was that of a maid. The comedian
Nat Goodwin saw her act and invited her to look him up if she ever got to New York City. Three years later, after the
San Francisco Fire, at the age of 16, she made the trip, and true to his words, Goodwin put her to work with several tour engagements. Fired from her first tour, she returned to New York and acted in some plays there before returning to California. followed by more tours and vaudeville parts. Her next hit was in August 1917 as Sadie in
The Deluge, directed by
Arthur Hopkins. Lord returned to the stage in 1932 playing Abby in Sidney Howard's
The Late Christopher Bean. She made her film debut in 1934 as
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, followed by
A Feather in Her Hat, released the following year. She found she was not interested in cinema and returned to the stage. In January 1936, she played Zenobia in Owen and Donald Davis’ dramatization of
Edith Wharton's
Ethan Frome. Her last appearance on stage was in 1946 as Amanda in a touring company's production of
Tennessee Williams'
The Glass Menagerie. == Personal life and death ==