Steven H. Silver and Variety are reporting the death of Hollywood producer Charles H. Schneer on 21 January 2009 in Boca Raton, Florida. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1920, he worked briefly at Universal Studios before moving over to Columbia Pictures, where he met Ray Harryhausen on It Came from Beneath the Sea. The two wound up working together on more than a dozen movies. Schneer also produced Hellcats of the Navy (1957), which starred future President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy Davis.
Schneer began making movies (training films) while serving in the Signal Corps during World War II. After the war, he was first credited as an associate producer on 1953’s The 49th Man, and wrapped up his career with Clash of the Titans in 1981. In between, he worked on many genre films, including: Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), The Valley of Gwangi (1969), First Men in the Moon (1964), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Mysterious Island (1961), The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), and It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955).
Schneer is survived by his wife of 68 years, Shirley, a sister, two daughters, three grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. The family requests that donations in his memory be made to the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Department of Development, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St. SW, Rochester, MN 55905.