Ray Nazarro

• Name — Ray Nazarro • Birth Name — Raymond Alfred Nazarro • Born — 25 September 1902 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts, US • Died — 8 September 1986 • Place of death — Studio City, Los Angeles, California, US • Occupation — Film and television director, producer, screenwriter • Years Active — 1929–1964

Born in Boston, 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, beginning with Outlaws of the Rockies. 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 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 character. In 1950 Nazarro was assigned a non-Western "B" picture, David Harding, Counterspy. 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 (1951) starring Dan Duryea. In 1952, Nazarro received an Academy Award nomination for Best Story for Bullfighter and the Lady. Budd Boetticher, 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 at MGM. 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 for United Artists and followed that with The Bandits of Corsica, also for UA, and Kansas Pacific 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. He also began working in television. His last film was the German-made Jayne Mansfield thriller Dog Eat Dog, released in 1964. Nazarro died on September 8, 1986, and is buried in Chapel of the Pines Crematory.

• Film • Year — Film — Notes • 1932 — Runt Page — Credited as Raymond Nazarro; Short film • 1934 — Jimmy the Gent — Writer, story "The Heir Chaser" • 1935 — Suicide Squad — Writer • 1935 — Roaring Roads — as Reymond Nazarro • 1945 — Outlaws of the Rockies • 1945 — Song of the Prairie • 1945 — Texas Panhandle • 1946 — Roaring Rangers • 1946 — Throw a Saddle on a Star • 1946 — Gunning for Vengeance • 1946 — Galloping Thunder • 1946 — That Texas Jamboree • 1946 — Two-Fisted Stranger • 1946 — The Desert Horseman • 1946 — Cowboy Blues • 1946 — Heading West • 1946 — Singing on the Trail • 1946 — Terror Trail • 1946 — Lone Star Moonlight • 1947 — Over the Santa Fe Trail • 1947 — The Lone Hand Texan • 1947 — West of Dodge City • 1947 — Law of the Canyon • 1947 — Buckaroo from Powder River • 1947 — Last Days of Boot Hill • 1947 — Rose of Santa Rosa • 1948 — Six-Gun Law • 1948 — Phantom Valley • 1948 — Song of Idaho • 1948 — West of Sonora • 1948 — Blazing Across the Pecos • 1948 — The Arkansas Swing • 1948 — Trail to Laredo • 1948 — Singin' Spurs • 1948 — El Dorado Pass • 1948 — Quick on the Trigger • 1948 — Smoky Mountain Melody • 1949 — Challenge of the Range • 1949 — Home in San Antone • 1949 — Laramie • 1949 — The Blazing Trail • 1949 — South of Death Valley • 1949 — Bandits of El Dorado • 1949 — Renegades of the Sage • 1950 — Trail of the Rustlers • 1950 — The Palomino • 1950 — Outcast of Black Mesa • 1950 — Texas Dynamo • 1950 — Hoedown • 1950 — David Harding, Counterspy • 1950 — Streets of Ghost Town • 1950 — The Tougher They Come • 1950 — Frontier Outpost • 1951 — Al Jennings of Oklahoma • 1951 — Flame of Stamboul • 1951 — Fort Savage Raiders • 1951 — China Corsair • 1951 — Cyclone Fury • 1951 — The Kid from Amarillo • 1952 — Indian Uprising • 1952 — Laramie Mountains • 1952 — Montana Territory • 1952 — The Rough, Tough West • 1952 — Cripple Creek • 1952 — Junction City • 1953 — Kansas Pacific — First film released by another studio (Allied Artists) after contract with Columbia ended • 1953 — The Bandits of Corsica — Second film made for United Artists • 1953 — Gun Belt — First film made (for United Artists) since leaving Columbia • 1954 — Southwest Passage • 1954 — The Lone Gun • 1954 — The Black Dakotas • 1955 — Top Gun • 1956 — The White Squaw • 1957 — The Phantom Stagecoach • 1957 — The Hired Gun — Made for MGM • 1957 — Domino Kid • 1958 — Return to Warbow • 1958 — Apache Territory — Last US made film • 1964 — Dog Eat Dog • Television • Year — Title — Notes • 1951 — The Range Rider — Unknown episodes • 1954–1956 — Annie Oakley — 14 episodes • 1955 — Buffalo Bill, Jr. — 8 episodes • 1955–1960 — Fury — 8 episodes, produced two episodes • 1959 — Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer — 3 episodes

Nazarro worked as film director, screenwriter, film producer and television producer, and the authority record catalogues a further 1 occupations under the same name, among them director. Nazarro worked in English. Nazarro died on 8 September 1986 in Los Angeles. Nazarro is buried at Chapel of the Pines Crematory.

Nazarro worked for the screen, as film director, screenwriter and film producer. 76 films survive in the institutional catalogues, spanning 1945 to 1964. Among them are Song of the Prairie (1945), Outlaws of the Rockies (1945), Texas Panhandle (1945), Cowboy Blues (1946), Throw a Saddle on a Star (1946) and Roaring Rangers (1946). The whole run is set out in the catalogue below.