Charles H. Schneer

The son of a jeweller, Charles H. Schneer was chiefly famous for his collaborations with animator and special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen. Together, they created some of the best-loved fantasy and science fiction films to grace the silver screen between 1956 and 1981. Importantly, Schneer encouraged Harryhausen's imaginative flights even to the point of exceeding his budget - unlike many other producers active in the realm of low-budget film making. Schneer had initially entered the motion picture industry with Columbia in New York in 1939. He worked as an assistant there for three years and then did his wartime service with the U.S. Army Signals Corps Photographic Unit, turning out training films at the Astoria Studio in Queens, New York. After the war, he joined Sam Katzman's B-unit at Columbia as producer. It was Schneer's original concept of a giant octopus enveloping the Golden Gate Bridge that led to his introduction to Harryhausen and their subsequent joint work on It Came f