Charles H. Schneer

Charles H. Schneer (May 5, 1920 – January 21, 2009) was a film producer most widely known for working with Ray Harryhausen, known for his work in stop motion model animation.

Life and career

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, he graduated from Columbia University in 1940. Serving in the US Army's Signal Corps Photographic Unit during the war, and moved to Hollywood following demobilisation. After joining Columbia Pictures, he was introduced to Harryhausen by a mutual friend from Schneer's time in the Army.

Together they made It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955), about a giant octopus that wreaks havoc on the Golden Gate Bridge. The octopus had only six tentacles, which Schneer is reported to have been correct in claiming no one would notice. This film made use of stop-motion photography which the two men were to use to greater effect in later films including Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), and Clash of the Titans (1981).

In 1960, he moved his base of operations to London, where he remained for 45 years. Beside the fantasy films, he also produced the film version of the stage musical Half a Sixpence (1967) starring Tommy Steele and Hellcats of the Navy (1957), the only film starring both Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan (as Nancy Davis).

Ray Harryhausen

Raymond Frederick "Ray" Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American visual effects creator, writer, and producer who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as "Dynamation."

His most memorable works include the animation on Mighty Joe Young (1949), with his mentor Willis H. O'Brien, which won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects; The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), his first color film; and Jason and the Argonauts (1963), featuring a famous sword fight with seven skeleton warriors. His last film was Clash of the Titans (1981), after which he retired.

Harryhausen moved to the United Kingdom and lived in London from 1960 until his death in 2013. During his life, his innovative style of special effects in films inspired numerous filmmakers including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Lasseter, Peter Jackson, John Landis, Joe Dante, and Tim Burton.

Early life

Harryhausen was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Martha L. (née Reske) and Frederick W. Harryhausen. Of German descent, the family surname was originally spelled "Herrenhausen".

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures is an American film production and distribution studio of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film studios in the world, a member of the so-called Big Six. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

The studio, originally founded in 1918 as "Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales" by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jack's best friend Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924 and went public two years later. The name is derived from "Columbia", a national personification of the United States, which is used as the studio's logo.

In its early years a minor player in Hollywood, Columbia began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. It's the world's fifth largest major film studio.

Nathan H. Juran

Naftuli "Nathan" Hertz Juran (September 1, 1907 - October 23, 2002) was an American film art director and film director who along with Richard Day and Thomas Little is most noted for winning the Academy Award for Best Art Direction of a black and white film in 1942 for How Green Was My Valley and for directing science fiction and fantasy films such as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. He was also the brother of quality guru Joseph M. Juran.

Life and career

Juran was born to a Jewish family in Gura Humorului, Romania. In 1912, he emigrated to America with his family, settling in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned a bachelor's degree in Architecture from the University of Minnesota. He also spent a summer studying at the École des Beaux-Arts before earning a master's degree in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With the construction industry at a standstill due to the Great Depression, Juran moved to Los Angeles, where he landed a job as a draftsman in the art department at RKO Radio Pictures. He later moved to 20th Century Fox, where he became art director on How Green Was My Valley.

Charles

Charles is a masculine given name from the French form Charles of a Germanic name Karl. The original Anglo-Saxon was Ċearl or Ċeorl, as the name of king Cearl of Mercia, that disappeared after the Norman conquest of England.

The corresponding Old Norse form is Karl, the German form is also Karl. The name was notably borne by Charlemagne (Charles the Great), and was at the time Latinized as Karolus (as in Vita Karoli Magni), later also as Carolus.

Etymology

The name's etymology is a Common Germanic noun *karlaz meaning "free man", which survives in English as churl (< Old English ċeorl), which developed its deprecating sense in the Middle English period.

In the form Charles, the initial spelling ch- corresponds to the palatalization of the Latin group ca- to [tʃa] in Central Old French (Francien) and the final -s to the former subjective case (cas sujet) of masculine names in Old French like in Giles or James (< Latin -us, see Spanish/ Portuguese Carlos).

According to Julius Pokorny, the historical linguist and Indo-Europeanist, the root meaning of Karl is "old man", from Indo-European *ĝer-, where the ĝ is a palatal consonant, meaning "to rub; to be old; grain." An old man has been worn away and is now grey with age.