Edward Nassour (April 7, 1911 – December 15, 1962) was an American film producer, businessman, and special effects animator. He was the brother and business partner of William Nassour (1903–1987).

Biography

Edward Nassour was born in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010 United States Census, 2 ...

, one of the sons of Syrian immigrants Abraham and Rhoda Nassour, who had emigrated to New York's

Little Syria Little Syria () was a diverse neighborhood that existed in the New York City borough of Manhattan from the late 1880s until the 1940s., pp.76-77; Two other sections of New York were singled out as particularly Syrian in 1939, "the Syrian shops a ...

with their elder son William in 1902. Before becoming a producer, Nassour worked as a Los Angeles businessman working in the aircraft manufacturing industry and had an interest in

stop motion animation Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

. In the early 1940s he partnered with

Walter Lantz Walter Benjamin Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker. Biography Early years and start in animat ...

to make a stop motion

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

dinosaur film for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

entitled ''Lost Atlantis''. Lantz and Nassour produced a test reel, but the project was too expensive and was never completed. The two men decided to form a company to make a series of stop motion films but the plan never was completed. In 1946, the Nassour brothers purchased a four-acre lot on

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...

and built a studio complex (Consolidated Studios) featuring four stages, a projection room, dressing rooms, and offices. A variety of independent films (such as ''

Africa Screams ''Africa Screams'' is a 1949 American adventure comedy film starring Abbott and Costello and directed by Charles Barton that parodies the safari genre. The title is a play on the title of the 1930 documentary '' Africa Speaks!'' The supporting ...

'' and '' Mrs. Mike'' (both 1949)) and television shows were produced at the complex. After selling their studio complex to the

Times Mirror Company The Times Mirror Company was an American newspaper and print media publisher from 1884 until 2000. History It had its roots in the Mirror Printing and Binding House, a commercial printing company founded in 1873, and the ''Los Angeles Times'' ...

for their TV station

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned a ...

in May 1950, Nassour supervised the dinosaur sequences in '' The Lost Continent''. They later built another studio, Nassour Studio Inc. Later the Nassours made the television series ''

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, is a fictional American comic book jungle girl heroine during the Golden Age of Comic Books. She originally debuted in the British magazine ''Wags'' #46 (January 1938). and later made her first American appearance i ...

'' in Mexico. Nassour developed a special effects process called "Regiscope" and successfully patented many animation techniques. He claimed to have spent 18 years developing the process from his ''Lost Atlantis'' project. Regiscope was used in the Mexican

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint vent ...

The Beast of Hollow Mountain ''The Beast of Hollow Mountain'' is a 1956 weird west horror film about an American rancher living in Mexico who discovers that his missing cattle are being preyed upon by a dinosaur. Plot In southern Mexico at the turn of the 20th century, t ...

'' that Edward directed based on designs by

Willis O'Brien Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962), known as Obie O'Brien, was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known im ...

for his then-unfinished film ''

The Valley of Gwangi ''The Valley of Gwangi'' is a 1969 American fantasy Western film produced by Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen, directed by Jim O'Connolly, written by William Bast, and starring James Franciscus, Richard Carlson, and Gila Golan. Creatu ...

''.

Personal life

In 1946, he married American film and radio actress Sharon Douglas (born Rhoda-Nelle Rader; October 16, 1920,

Stephens County, Oklahoma Stephens County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 42,848. Its county seat is Duncan, Oklahoma, Duncan. The county was created at state ...

– June 18, 2016); the couple had four sons together.

Death

Nassour had been in poor health and was found dead in

Sherman Oaks, California Sherman Oaks (founded in 1927) is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles, California within the San Fernando Valley region. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density ...

with a self-inflicted knife wound to the heart.Slide, Anthony ''The Television Industry: a Historical Dictionary'' Greenwood Press, 1991, p. 185

References

External links

*
William Nassour
at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

*Nassour Studios https://web.archive.org/web/20110719002611/http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry/nassour.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Nassour, Edward 1911 births 1962 suicides American film producers American special effects people American television producers American people of Lebanese descent 20th-century American businesspeople Suicides by sharp instrument in the United States 1962 deaths Suicides in California