Early Life and Career
Shearer was born in Montreal, Quebec to a prominent upper-class family, but his family fell on hard times after his father's business failed, which ultimately led to his parents' separation. Douglas remained with his father in Montreal while his two younger sisters, MGM star Norma Shearer and Athole, moved to New York City with their mother.
Unable to afford university, Douglas Shearer left school, working at a variety of jobs until he visited his sisters, who by then had relocated to Hollywood, California in the early 1920s. He decided to remain there, and found a job at MGM Studios, (his sister Norma was under contract at MGM) where he began to pursue an interest in the creation of sound in film. This interest lead to a forty-year association with the film business, in which he was a significant innovator in the development and perfecting of sound technology in motion pictures. One of his many contributions included the development of a sophisticated recording system that eliminated unwanted background noise during sound recording. Over his long career, Douglas Shearer was nominated for an Academy Award a total of twenty-one times, winning seven times for Sound and Special Effects. He is credited as Recording Director at MGM on many films between 1930 to 1953. In 1955, he was appointed MGM's director of technical research and by the time he retired in 1968 he had won an additional seven Scientific or Technical Academy Awards.
Shearer died in Culver City, California.
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