Ray Nazarro ''(aka'' "Ray" and "Nat;" ''né'' Raymond Alfred Nazarro; September 25, 1902 – September 8, 1986) was an American

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and

television director A television director is in charge of the activities involved in making a television program or section of a program. They are generally responsible for decisions about the editorial content and creative style of a program, and ensuring the prod ...

, producer, and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

Budd Boetticher Oscar "Budd" Boetticher Jr. ( ; July 29, 1916 – November 29, 2001) was an American film director. He is best remembered for a series of low-budget Westerns he made in the late 1950s starring Randolph Scott. Early life Boetticher was born in ...

called him a "ten-day picture guy."Budd Boetticher: The Last Interview Wheeler, Winston Dixon. Film Criticism; Meadville Vol. 26, Iss. 3, (Spring 2002): 52-0_3.

Career

Born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Nazarro entered the movie business during the silent era. He initially worked in two-reelers. In 1945 he became a feature-film director at

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

, beginning with ''

Outlaws of the Rockies ''Outlaws of the Rockies'' is a 1945 American Western film directed by Ray Nazarro and written by J. Benton Cheney. The film stars Charles Starrett, Tex Harding, Dub Taylor, Carole Mathews, Carolina Cotton and Spade Cooley. The film was releas ...

''. Nazarro was one of Hollywood's busiest directors, directing as many as 13 pictures in one year. He made budget westerns almost exclusively. From 1945 to 1948 he alternated between directing action westerns with Columbia's leading cowboy star

Charles Starrett Charles Robert Starrett (March 28, 1903 – March 22, 1986) was an American actor, best known for his starring role in the ''Durango Kid'' westerns. Starrett still holds the record for starring in the longest series of theatrical features: ...

and directing the "rural rhythm" band The Hoosier Hot Shots in a series of musical-comedy westerns. When the musical series lapsed in 1948, Nazarro concentrated on the Starrett westerns, now featuring the

Durango Kid Charles Robert Starrett (March 28, 1903 – March 22, 1986) was an American actor, best known for his starring role in the ''Durango Kid'' westerns. Starrett still holds the record for starring in the longest series of theatrical features: ...

character. In 1950 Nazarro was assigned a non-western "B" picture, ''

David Harding, Counterspy ''David Harding, Counterspy'' is a 1950 American film noir crime film directed by Ray Nazarro and starring Willard Parker. It was based on the radio series '' Counterspy''. Plot An American spy is killed under suspicious circumstances. His fri ...

''. This resulted in Nazarro receiving more non-western assignments and slightly higher budgets. He was also entrusted with more ambitious western stories, with an emphasis on action but also a serious, elegiac view of the West, like ''

Al Jennings of Oklahoma ''Al Jennings of Oklahoma'' is a 1951 American Western film directed by Ray Nazarro and starring Dan Duryea and Gale Storm. It is based on the story of Al Jennings, a former train robber turned attorney. Premise Ex-lawyer becomes leader of not ...

'' (1951) starring

Dan Duryea Dan Duryea ( , January 23, 1907 – June 7, 1968) was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying a vast range of character roles as a villain, he nonetheless had a long career in a wide variety of leading and second ...

. In 1952, Nazarro received an Academy Award nomination for

Academy Award for Best Story The Academy Award for Best Story was an Academy Award given from the beginning of the Academy Awards until 1956. This award can be a source of confusion for modern audiences, given its co-existence with the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenpl ...

for ''

Bullfighter and the Lady ''Bullfighter and the Lady'' is a 1951 drama romance sport film directed and written by Budd Boetticher starring Robert Stack, Joy Page and Gilbert Roland. Filmed on location in Mexico, the film focused on the realities of the dangerous sport o ...

''.

, who had been a bullfighter, told his life story to Nazarro when he was working for him as an assistant director. Boetticher says he wrote it down, and Nazarro typed it up and sold the project to

Dore Schary Isadore "Dore" Schary (August 31, 1905 – July 7, 1980) was an American playwright, director, and producer for the stage and a prolific screenwriter and producer of motion pictures. He directed just one feature film, '' Act One'', the film bio ...

MGM 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 a ...

. Boetticher said that was the reason for Nazarro getting screen credit. When Columbia suspended B-western production in 1952, Nazarro's contract with Columbia ended after he had made around 60 films for the studio. He next made ''

Gun Belt A police duty belt (sometimes referred to as a gun belt, "duty rig" and/or kit belt) is a belt, typically constructed of nylon or leather used by police, prison and security officers to carry equipment easily in a series of pouches attached t ...

'' for

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

and followed that with ''

The Bandits of Corsica ''The Bandits of Corsica'', alternative title ''The Return of the Corsican Brothers'', is a 1953 American adventure film directed by Ray Nazarro and starring Richard Greene, Paula Raymond and Raymond Burr. It is loosely based on the 1844 novell ...

'', also for UA, and ''

Kansas Pacific The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontin ...

'' for Allied Artists Pictures, although both were released before ''Gun Belt''. He continued making films for UA and Columbia until '' Apache Territory'' (1958). He also made '' The Hired Gun'' (1957) for MGM. In the late 1950s, with the market for B-westerns drying up in America, Nazarro restarted his career in Europe, making

spaghetti westerns The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most of ...

. He also began working in

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

. His last film was the German-made

Jayne Mansfield Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress, singer, nightclub entertainer, and ''Playboy'' Playmate. A sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s while under contract at 20th Century Fox, Man ...

thriller '' Dog Eat Dog'', released in 1964. Nazarro died on September 8, 1986, and is buried in

Chapel of the Pines Crematory Chapel of the Pines Crematory is a crematory and columbarium located at 1605 South Catalina Street, Los Angeles, in the U.S. state of California, in the historic West Adams District a short distance southwest of Downtown. It is beside Angelus- ...

Selected filmography

Award nominations

References

External links

* * 1902 births 1986 deaths American film directors American male screenwriters American television directors Television producers from Massachusetts Burials at Chapel of the Pines Crematory Businesspeople from Boston Western (genre) film directors 20th-century American businesspeople Screenwriters from Massachusetts 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters {{US-film-director-1900s-stub