Douglas Graham Shearer (November 17, 1899 – January 5, 1971) was a

Canadian American Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship. The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadia ...

pioneering

sound designer In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

and recording director who played a key role in the advancement of sound technology for motion pictures. The elder brother of actress

Norma Shearer Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'N ...

, he won seven

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for his work. In 2008, he was inducted into

Canada's Walk of Fame Canada's Walk of Fame (french: link=no, Allée des célébrités canadiennes) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a walk of fame that acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of Canadians who have excelled in their respective fields. It is a ...

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 Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in List of countries where English is an official language, English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is freq ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

while his two younger sisters,

(the

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

star) and

Athole Shearer Athole Dane Shearer Hawks (November 20, 1900 – March 17, 1985) was a Canadian-American actress and socialite, who was the sister of motion picture star Norma Shearer and MGM film sound engineer Douglas Shearer. Early life Athole Dane Sheare ...

(also a Hollywood actress and one-time wife of director Howard Hawks), moved to the United States—to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

—with their mother, Edith. 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 Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

, to visit his mother and sisters, who had moved there a few years earlier. He decided to remain there too, finding a job at

, 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.Katz, Ephraim (2001). ''The Film Encyclopedia'', fourth edition revised by Fred Klein and Ronald Dean Nolan. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2001, p. 1247. . 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." 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 Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

s, 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 Award The Scientific and Technical Awards are three different Honorary Awards that are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) during the annual Academy Awards season. The Awards have been presented since the 4th Academy Awards ...

s. 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."

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 ''The Film Daily'' was a daily publication that existed from 1918 to 1970 in the United States. It was the first daily newspaper published solely for the film industry. It covered the latest trade news, film reviews, financial updates, informatio ...

'' announced that "Douglas Shearer, head of the M-G-M sound department...has returned o Hollywoodfrom an 'aerial honeymoon' with his bride, formerly Ann Cunningham, also of the studio staff." The couple had two sons, Mark and Stephen. Later he married Avice Curry.

Death

Shearer died in Culver City, California, in 1971.

Awards and nominations

Scientific and Technical Academy Award Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

*7 wins Academy Award for Sound (Wins): *'' The Big House'' (1930) *'' Naughty Marietta'' (1935) *''

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

'' (1936) *'' Strike Up the Band'' (1940) *''

The Great Caruso ''The Great Caruso'' is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Mario Lanza as Enrico Caruso. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer from a screenpla ...

'' (1951) Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (Wins): *''

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' is a 1944 American war film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo is based on the 1943 book of the same name by Captain Ted W. Lawson. Lawson was a pilot on the historic Doolittle Raid, ...

'' (1944) *'' Green Dolphin Street'' (1947) Academy Award for Sound (Nominations): *''

Viva Villa! ''Viva Villa!'' is a 1934 American pre-Code film directed by Jack Conway and starring Wallace Beery as Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. The screenplay was written by Ben Hecht, adapted from the 1933 book '' Viva Villa!'' by Edgecumb Pinchon a ...

'' (1934) *'' Maytime'' (1937) *'' Sweethearts'' (1938) *''

Balalaika The balalaika (russian: link=no, балала́йка, ) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the thir ...

'' (1939) *''

The Chocolate Soldier ''The Chocolate Soldier'' (German: ''Der tapfere Soldat'' he courageous soldieror ''Der Praliné-Soldat'') is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus (composer), Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, ''Arms and the Man' ...

'' (1941) *'' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942) *''

Madame Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

'' (1943) *'' Kismet'' (1944) *''

They Were Expendable ''They Were Expendable'' is a 1945 American war film directed by John Ford, starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne, and featuring Donna Reed. The film is based on the 1942 novel of the same name by William Lindsay White, relating the story ...

'' (1945) *'' Green Dolphin Street'' (1947) Academy Award for Best Special Effects (Nominations): *'' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939) *''

Boom Town A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although ...

'' (1940) *''

Flight Command ''Flight Command'' is a 1940 American film about a cocky U.S. Navy pilot who has problems with his new squadron and with the wife of his commander. It stars Robert Taylor, Ruth Hussey and Walter Pidgeon. ''Flight Command'' has the distinction of ...

'' (1941) *'' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942)

References

External links