Douglas Shearer
Norma Shearer (sister)
Athole Shearer (sister)
Cresswell Shearer (uncle)
Douglas Graham Shearer (November 17, 1899 – January 5, 1971) was a Canadian American pioneering sound designer and recording director who played a key role in the advancement of sound technology for motion pictures. The elder brother of actress Norma Shearer, he won seven Academy Awards for his work. In 2008, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.
Early life and career
Shearer was born in Westmount, Quebec, to a prominent family that fell on hard times after his father's business failed, which ultimately led to his parents' separation. Douglas remained with his father Andrew in Montreal while his two younger sisters, Norma Shearer (the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star) and Athole Shearer (also a Hollywood actress and one-time wife of director Howard Hawks), moved to the United States—to New York City—with their mother, Edith.[1]
Unable to afford a university education, Douglas Shearer left school and began working in a variety of jobs. In 1924, he traveled to Hollywood, California, to visit his mother and sisters, who had moved there a few years earlier. He decided to remain there too, finding a job at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where Norma was already under contract.
At MGM, working as an assistant in the studio's camera department, he pursued an interest in adding sound to film.[2] That interest led to a career that spanned more than four decades in motion pictures. "What I knew about sound you could have put in a nutshell," he said. "Overnight I became the one-man sound department. They ordered me to do the job; they didn't give it to me. And probably they wouldn't have given it to me except that they were desperate."[3]
Douglas became a significant inventor and innovator in sound technology, with one of his many contributions being a system he developed that eliminated unwanted background noise. Over his long career, Shearer was nominated twenty-one times for Academy Awards, winning seven Oscars for Sound and Special Effects. He is credited as recording director in most of the films that MGM produced between 1930 and 1953.
Shearer was appointed the studio's director of technical research in 1955; and by the time he retired in 1968 Shearer had won an additional seven Scientific or Technical Academy Awards. In summing up his career, The Film Encyclopedia by Ephraim Katz (2001) states that "during his more than 40 years with MGM he contributed more than any other man in Hollywood to the perfection of motion picture sound."[2]
Personal life
Shearer married Marion B. Tilden in Montreal in September 1922. She died on June 6, 1931, and the following year he married Ann Cunningham in California. In its October 4, 1932 issue, the trade paper The Film Daily announced that "Douglas Shearer, head of the M-G-M sound department...has returned [to Hollywood] from an 'aerial honeymoon' with his bride, formerly Ann Cunningham, also of the studio staff."[4] The couple had two sons, Mark and Stephen. Later he married Avice Curry.[5]
Death
Shearer died in Culver City, California, in 1971.
Awards and nominations
Scientific and Technical Academy Award
- 7 wins
Academy Award for Sound (Wins):
- The Big House (1930)[6]
- Naughty Marietta (1935)[7]
- San Francisco (1936)[8]
- Strike Up the Band (1940)[9]
- The Great Caruso (1951)[10]
Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (Wins):
- Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)[11]
- Green Dolphin Street (1947)[12]
Academy Award for Sound (Nominations):
- Viva Villa! (1934)[13]
- Maytime (1937)[14]
- Sweethearts (1938)[15]
- Balalaika (1939)[16]
- The Chocolate Soldier (1941)[17]
- Mrs. Miniver (1942)[18]
- Madame Curie (1943)[19]
- Kismet (1944)[11]
- They Were Expendable (1945)[20]
- Green Dolphin Street (1947)[12]
Academy Award for Best Special Effects (Nominations):
- The Wizard of Oz (1939)[16]
- Boom Town (1940)[9]
- Flight Command (1941)[17]
- Mrs. Miniver (1942)[18]
See also
References
- ^ "Douglas Shearer", biographical profile, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Turner Broadcasting System, a subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc. New York, N.Y. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
- ^ a b Katz, Ephraim (2001). The Film Encyclopedia, fourth edition revised by Fred Klein and Ronald Dean Nolan. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2001, p. 1247. ISBN 0-06-273755-4.
- ^ Eyman, Scott. The Sound of Silence: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930. Simon and Schuster, New York: 1997
- ^ Wilk, Ralph (1932). "A Little from 'Lots'", The Film Daily, October 4, 1932, page 7, column 2. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
- ^ Douglas Shearer at IMDb
- ^ "The 3rd Academy Awards (1929/30) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
- ^ "The 8th Academy Awards (1935) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- ^ "The 9th Academy Awards (1936) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
- ^ a b "The 13th Academy Awards (1941) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ "The 24th Academy Awards (1952) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
- ^ a b "The 17th Academy Awards (1945) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
- ^ a b "The 20th Academy Awards (1948) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
- ^ "The 7th Academy Awards (1935) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- ^ "The 10th Academy Awards (1938) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-09.
- ^ "The 11th Academy Awards (1939) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ a b "The 12th Academy Awards (1940) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-11.
- ^ a b "The 14th Academy Awards (1942) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
- ^ a b "The 15th Academy Awards (1943) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-14.
- ^ "The 16th Academy Awards (1944) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-14.
- ^ "The 18th Academy Awards (1946) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
External links
- Douglas Shearer at IMDb
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- Douglas Shearer (1929/30)
- Paramount Publix Studio Sound Department (1930/31)
- Paramount Publix Studio Sound Department (1931/32)
- Franklin Hansen (1932/33)
- John P. Livadary (1934)
- Douglas Shearer (1935)
- Douglas Shearer (1936)
- Thomas T. Moulton (1937)
- Thomas T. Moulton (1938)
- Bernard B. Brown (1939)
- Douglas Shearer (1940)
- Jack Whitney (1941)
- Nathan Levinson (1942)
- Stephen Dunn (1943)
- Edmund H. Hansen (1944)
- Stephen Dunn (1945)
- John P. Livadary (1946)
- Gordon E. Sawyer (1947)
- Thomas T. Moulton (1948)
- Thomas T. Moulton (1949)
- Thomas T. Moulton (1950)
- Douglas Shearer (1951)
- London Films Sound Department (1952)
- John P. Livadary (1953)
- Leslie I. Carey (1954)
- Fred Hynes (1955)
- Carlton W. Faulkner (1956)
- George Groves (1957)
- Fred Hynes (1958)
- Franklin Milton (1959)
- Fred Hynes and Gordon E. Sawyer (1960)
- Gordon E. Sawyer and Fred Hynes (1961)
- John Cox (1962)
- Franklin Milton (1963)
- George Groves (1964)
- James Corcoran and Fred Hynes (1965)
- Franklin Milton (1966)
- Samuel Goldwyn Studio (1967)
- Shepperton Studios (1968)
- Jack Solomon and Murray Spivack (1969)
- Douglas Williams and Don Bassman (1970)
- Gordon McCallum and David Hildyard (1971)
- Robert Knudson and David Hildyard (1972)
- Robert Knudson and Chris Newman (1973)
- Ronald Pierce and Melvin Metcalfe Sr. (1974)
- Robert Hoyt, Roger Heman, Earl Madery, and John Carter (1975)
- Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, and Jim Webb (1976)
- Don MacDougall, Ray West, Bob Minkler, and Derek Ball (1977)
- Richard Portman, William McCaughey, Aaron Rochin, and Darin Knight (1978)
- Walter Murch, Mark Berger, Richard Beggs, and Nat Boxer (1979)
- Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, and Peter Sutton (1980)
- Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker, and Roy Charman (1981)
- Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don Digirolamo, and Gene Cantamessa (1982)
- Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Randy Thom, and David MacMillan (1983)
- Mark Berger, Tom Scott, Todd Boekelheide, and Chris Newman (1984)
- Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander, Larry Stensvold, and Peter Handford (1985)
- John Wilkinson, Richard Rogers, Charles Grenzbach, and Simon Kaye (1986)
- Bill Rowe and Ivan Sharrock (1987)
- Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, Vern Poore, and Willie D. Burton (1988)
- Donald O. Mitchell, Gregg Rudloff, Elliot Tyson, and Russell Williams II (1989)
- Jeffrey Perkins, Bill W. Benton, Gregory H. Watkins, and Russell Williams II (1990)
- Tom Johnson, Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, and Lee Orloff (1991)
- Chris Jenkins, Doug Hemphill, Mark Smith, and Simon Kaye (1992)
- Gary Summers, Gary Rydstrom, Shawn Murphy, and Ron Judkins (1993)
- Gregg Landaker, Steve Maslow, Bob Beemer, and David MacMillan (1994)
- Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan, and David MacMillan (1995)
- Walter Murch, Mark Berger, David Parker, and Chris Newman (1996)
- Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, and Mark Ulano (1997)
- Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, and Ron Judkins (1998)
- John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David E. Campbell, and David Lee (1999)
- Bob Beemer, Scott Millan, and Ken Weston (2000)
- Michael Minkler, Chris Munro, and Myron Nettinga (2001)
- David Lee, Michael Minkler, and Dominick Tavella (2002)
- Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek, and Michael Semanick (2003)
- Scott Millan, Greg Orloff, Bob Beemer, and Steve Cantamessa (2004)
- Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, and Hammond Peek (2005)
- Bob Beemer, Willie D. Burton, and Michael Minkler (2006)
- Kirk Francis, Scott Millan, and David Parker (2007)
- Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, and Ian Tapp (2008)
- Paul N. J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett (2009)
- Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, and Ed Novick (2010)
- Tom Fleischman and John Midgley (2011)
- Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, and Simon Hayes (2012)
- Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro (2013)
- Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, and Thomas Curley (2014)
- Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff, and Ben Osmo (2015)
- Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie, and Peter Grace (2016)
- Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker, and Gary Rizzo (2017)
- Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin, and John Casali (2018)
- Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson (2019)
- Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés Navarrete, and Michelle Couttolenc (2020)
- Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, and Ron Bartlett (2021)
- Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon, and Mark Taylor (2022)
- Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn (2023)