Biography

Russell Morrison Shearman (April 27, 1908 – May 5, 1956) was an American special effects artist.

He won a Technical Achievement Award at the 19th Academy Awards in 1946 along with Marty Martin and Jack Lannan of the RKO Radio Studio Special Effects Dept. for the development of a new method of simulating falling snow on motion picture sets for It's a Wonderful Life. The film won just the one Academy Award, in the Technical Achievement category for developing a new method of creating artificial snow.

Before It's a Wonderful Life, fake movie snow was mostly made from cornflakes painted white and it was so loud when stepped on that any snow-filled scenes with dialogue had to be re-dubbed afterwards. RKO studio's head of special effects, Russell Sherman, developed a new compound, utilizing water, soap flakes, foamite and sugar.

He won an Academy Award during the 21st Academy Awards for Best Special Effects. He won for the film Portrait of Jennie. He shared his win with Paul Eagler, Charles L. Freeman, Joseph McMillan Johnson, Clarence Slifer and James G. Stewart.