Ray Nazarro Video | Clips from Films Directed and Interviews

Ray Nazarro (September 25, 1902 - September 8, 1986) was an American film and television director, producer, and screenwriter Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Nazarro entered the movie business during the silent era, and began directing short films in 1929 with In and Out (billed as "Nat Nazarro"). He spent the next 13 years working in two-reelers, honing an approach to filmmaking that was quick, lean and eminently desirable--to producers, at least--before he became a feature film director at Columbia Pictures, beginning with Outlaws of the Rockies (1945). Nazarro did the vast majority of... MORE

Ray Nazarro (September 25, 1902 - September 8, 1986) was an American film and television director, producer, and screenwriter Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Nazarro entered the movie business during the silent era, and began directing short films in 1929 with In and Out (billed as "Nat Nazarro"). He spent the next 13 years working in two-reelers, honing an approach to filmmaking that was quick, lean and eminently desirable--to producers, at least--before he became a feature film director at Columbia Pictures, beginning with Outlaws of the Rockies (1945). Nazarro did the vast majority of his work for Columbia, and was one of the busiest directors on the lot of any major studio--from 1945-1955 he worked at a furious pace, directing as many as 13 pictures in one year. These were almost all B-westerns, very quickly but also very well made, lean and uncluttered, with an emphasis on action but also a serious elegiac view of the west--among them were Al Jennings of Oklahoma (1951) and The Black Dakotas (1954). At the end of the '50s, with the market for B-westerns drying up in America, Nazarro picked up his career in Europe with spaghetti westerns and also began working in television. His LESS