Delmer Lawrence Daves (July 24, 1904 – August 17, 1977) was an American screenwriter, film director and film producer. He worked in many genres, including film noir and warfare, but he is best known for his Western movies, especially Broken Arrow (1950), The Last Wagon (1956), 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and The Hanging Tree (1959). He was forced to work on studio-based films only after heart trouble in 1959 but one of these, A Summer Place, was nevertheless a huge commercial success.
Daves worked with some of the best known players of his time including established stars like Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Glenn Ford, James Stewart and Richard Widmark. He also helped to develop the careers of up-and-coming players such as Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Felicia Farr and George C. Scott.
Born in San Francisco, Daves studied law at Stanford University but, on completing his degree, he decided to pursue a career in the burgeoning film industry, first working as a prop boy on the Western The Covered Wagon (1923), directed by James Cruze, and then serving as a technical advisor on a number of other films. He tried his hand at acting and appeared in more than ten movies including The Night Flyer (1928) (produced by Cruze), The Duke Steps Out (1929) and Good News (1930).

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