Sam Comer

Samuel "Sam" Comer (born July 27, 1893 , † December 27, 1974 in La Jolla , California ) was an American production designer who received the Oscar for best production design four times .

Life

Comer began his work as a production designer in the Hollywood film industry in 1934 for Here is my Heart by Frank Tuttle, and in the course of his thirty years of activity he created the sets for 300 film and television productions.

At the Academy Awards in 1942 , he and Hans Dreier and Robert Usher were nominated for the first time for the black and white film Das goldene Tor (1941) for the Oscar for best production design. Another nomination with Dreier and Roland Anderson followed in 1943 for the black and white film Liebling, zum Dictat and again with Dreier and Usher for the black and white film No Time for Love (No Time for Love, 1943) at the Academy Awards in 1945 . In addition, he was nominated together with Dreier, Anderson and Ray Moyer in 1946 for the black and white film Love Letters (Love Letters, 1945).

Together with Dreier and Ernst Fegté , he received his first Oscar for best production design in 1945 for the color film The Pirate and the Lady (1944).

At the Academy Awards in 1947 , he and Dreier, Moyer and Walter H. Tyler were again nominated for the Oscar in the category of best production design in a black and white film, namely for A Lady with a Past (Kitty, 1945).

In 1951 , he won two Academy Awards, one with Dreier, Tyler and Moyer for the color film Samson and Delilah (1949) and the other with Dreier, Moyer and John Meehan for the black and white film Boulevard of Twilight (1950).

At the Academy Awards in 1955 he was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category of best production design, but this time received no trophy. The nominations were with Hal Pereira , Anderson and Moyer for the color film Red Garters (1954) and for the black and white films Sabrina (1954), here together with Pereira, Tyler and Moyer, as well as with Pereira, Anderson and Grace Gregory for Ein Mädchen vom Lande .

In 1956 he not only won another Oscar with Pereira, Tambi Larsen and Arthur Krams for the black and white film The Tattooed Rose (1955), but was also with Pereira, Krams and J. McMillan Johnson for the Oscar for best production design in the color film Nominated above the roofs of Nice .

At the Academy Awards in 1957 , Comer was nominated again for two Oscar for best production design: on the one hand with Pereira, A. Earl Hedrick and Frank R. McKelvy for the black and white film Also Heroes Can Cry (1956), on the other hand for the color film The Ten Commandments ( 1956) together with Pereira, Tyler, Moyer and Albert Nozaki . Another nomination for an Oscar was made in 1958 together with Pereira, George W. Davis and Moyer for A Sweet Fratz (1957) and with Pereira, Henry Bumstead and McKelvy for Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead (1958).

In 1960 he was again nominated for an Oscar with Pereira, Tyler and Krams for the set design in the black and white film Many Are Called (Career, 1959). At the 1961 Academy Awards , Comer was nominated again for two Academy Awards. This time with Pereira, Anderson and Arrigo Breschi for Technicolor It Started in Naples (It started in Naples, 1960) as well as with Pereira, Tyler and Krams for the black and white film Visit to a Small Planet (Visit to a Small Planet, 1960). Two further Oscar nominations followed in 1962 , on the one hand together with Pereira, Tyler and Krams for the color film Summer and Smoke (Summer and Smoke, 1961), on the other hand with Pereira, Anderson and Moyer for Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), also a black and white film.

At the 1963 Academy Awards , he was nominated with Pereira, Anderson and McKelvy for the Oscar for production design in the black and white film The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962). Most recently, Sam Comer received three nominations in 1964 : With Pereira, Anderson and James W. Payne for the color film If my bedroom could speak (1963), together with Pereira, Anderson and Grace Gregory for the black and white film In Love with a Stranger (Love with the Proper Stranger, 1963) and with Pereira, Tambi Larsen and Robert R. Benton for the black and white film The Wildest Among Thousands (1963).

During his career as a production designer, Sam Comer worked with well-known directors such as Mitchell Leisen , William Dieterle , Cecil B. DeMille , Billy Wilder , George Marshall , George Seaton , Alfred Hitchcock , Daniel Mann , Stanley Donen , Joseph Anthony , Melville Shavelson , Norman Taurog , Peter Glenville , Blake Edwards , Bud Yorkin , Robert Mulligan and Martin Ritt together.

Most recently, the uncle of the film actress Anjanette Comer created the sets for television series such as Outlaw (1965) and Bonanza (1965 to 1967).

Web links

• Sam Comer in the Internet Movie Database (English)