She was 97.
Lord died at her home in Beverly Hills on November 28, according to her website.
The family did not publicly announce her death until Friday in an obituary for the Los Angeles Times. She was on hospice care the last few weeks of her life.
"Her health began to fade about two years ago and we thought we were going to lose her in a few months, but she would just keep rallying. I think she had the best parties of her life in the past two years," daughter, actress Anne Archer said.
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Lord got her start as an actress in theater before transitioning to film and television.
Born in San Francisco in 1918, Lord moved with her family to New York when she was 15 and enrolled in acting and ballet classes,
She was 18 when landed her first Broadway role in "The Old Maid," starring Judith Anderson. After signing with RKO Studios she was cast in feature films "Border Cafe" and "Forty Naughty Girls".
She met her first husband, actor John Archer, on the set of stage production "The Male Animal." They married in 1941 and moved to Hollywood, appearing in two films together: "Sherlock Holmes in Washington" and "Shantytown."