Was Oscar winner really killed by shark making 1950's film?
Movie making can be a dangerous business. Only recently, the movie industry was rocked by the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Alex Baldwin western ‘Rust’. Whereas handling weapons on a film set has safety protocols and procedures designed to keep people safe, working with animals can prove to impossible to safeguard against.
A previous blog about the alleged shark related death of stuntman Jose Marco shows that working with sharks is no exception. Sadly, there was another shark related film set death 13 years prior to Jose Marco that not many people have heard about.
Russell Morrison Shearman (April 27, 1908 – May 5, 1956)
Russell Shearman was a Oscar winning special effects artists (he won a Technical Achievement Award at the 19th Academy Awards in 1946) for the development of a new method of simulating falling snow on motion picture sets for It's a Wonderful Life.
James Stewart as George Bailey in ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’
In 1956, Shearman was contracted to bring his talents a new movie called ‘The Sharkfigthers’. During WW2, U.S. Navy scientists working in Cuba attempt to find an effective shark repellent to be used by servicemen stranded in shark-infested waters.
During production, Russell allegedly died from a shark attack while filming underwater scenes for The Sharkfighters in the Caribbean Sea off Cuba. This is according to an entry in a shark attack database (attributed to the Australian surgeon and shark attack enthusiast Sir Victor Coppleson). However, his obituary in the Los Angeles Times states that he died by electrocution while repairing equipment.
Having researched this tragic story, it is difficult to tell what really happened to Russell Shearman. No recorded details can be found about the incident such as precise area of the attack, the shark species involved nor any steps taken to save Russell. Nor is there much information about the supposed electrocution.
The narrative of electrocution may have been created to avoid an industry scandal and possible lawsuits aginast the producers and studio Having a crew member killed by a shark while making a film about sharks may have turned audiences off from seeing the movie. A tragic / accidental end may make the film appear to be a swan song for a talented artist who lost his life doing what he loved.
What do you think? Tell us in the comments.
Russell Shearman is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
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