Nathan Juran
Encyclopedia
Naftuli "Nathan" Hertz Juran (September 1, 1907 - October 23, 2002) was an American film art director and film director
who is most noted for winning the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for How Green Was My Valley
and for directing science fiction and fantasy films such as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
. He was also the brother of quality guru Joseph M. Juran
.
, Romania
. In 1912, he immigrated to America
with his family, settling in Minneapolis, Minnesota
. He earned a bachelor's degree in Architecture
from the University of Minnesota
. He also spent a summer studying at the École des Beaux-Arts
before earning a master's degree in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. With the construction industry at a standstill due to the Great Depression
, Juran moved to Los Angeles, where he landed a job as a draftsman in the art department at RKO Radio Pictures. He later moved to 20th Century Fox
, where he became art director on How Green Was My Valley
.
Juran enlisted in the Navy during the Second World War and was assigned to first the Office of Strategic Services
and then to the Royal Air Force
Intelligence Center.
He began his career as an art director
, winning an Oscar for his work on How Green Was My Valley (1941), and a nomination for The Razor's Edge
(1946). His other credits in the field included Charley's Aunt
(1941), Winchester '73 (1950), and Harvey
(1950).
As a director, his best-known efforts were in the science fiction
and fantasy
genres, often with producer Charles H. Schneer
, among which were Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
, 20 Million Miles To Earth
, The Brain from Planet Arous
, Jack the Giant Killer
, The Deadly Mantis
, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and First Men in the Moon (based on the novel by H.G. Wells). His television work included instalments of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
, Lost in Space
, and Land of the Giants
.
In 1999, he was honored with the Lifetime Career Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA.
He died at the age of 95 in Palos Verdes
, California
.
(1973)
First Men In The Moon
(1964)
Jack the Giant Killer (1962)
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
(1958)
The Brain from Planet Arous
(1958)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
20 Million Miles To Earth
(1957)
The Deadly Mantis
(1957)
The Black Castle
(1952)
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
who is most noted for winning the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley (film)
How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 drama film directed by John Ford. The film, based on the 1939 Richard Llewellyn novel, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and written by Philip Dunne. The film stars Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall...
and for directing science fiction and fantasy films such as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a 1958 American science fiction feature film produced by Bernard Woolner for Allied Artists Pictures. It was directed by Nathan H. Juran from a screenplay by Mark Hanna, and starred Allison Hayes, William Hudson and Yvette Vickers. The original music score was...
. He was also the brother of quality guru Joseph M. Juran
Joseph M. Juran
Joseph Moses Juran was a 20th century management consultant who is principally remembered as an evangelist for quality and quality management, writing several influential books on those subjects. He was the brother of Academy Award winner Nathan H...
.
Life and career
Juran was born to a Jewish family in Gura HumoruluiGura Humorului
Gura Humorului is a town located in northern Romania, Suceava County in southern Bukovina. Until 1918 it was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and formed a shtetl...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. In 1912, he immigrated to America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with his family, settling in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
. He earned a bachelor's degree in Architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
from the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
. He also spent a summer studying at the École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
before earning a master's degree in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. With the construction industry at a standstill due to the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Juran moved to Los Angeles, where he landed a job as a draftsman in the art department at RKO Radio Pictures. He later moved to 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, where he became art director on How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, telling the story through narration of the main character, of his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed to have based the book on his own knowledge of the Gilfach Goch area, but this was proven...
.
Juran enlisted in the Navy during the Second World War and was assigned to first the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
and then to the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Intelligence Center.
He began his career as an art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
, winning an Oscar for his work on How Green Was My Valley (1941), and a nomination for The Razor's Edge
The Razor's Edge (1946 film)
The Razor's Edge is the first film version of W. Somerset Maugham's 1944 novel. It was released in 1946 and stars Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, John Payne, Anne Baxter, Clifton Webb, Herbert Marshall, supporting cast Lucile Watson, Frank Latimore and Elsa Lanchester. Marshall plays Somerset Maugham....
(1946). His other credits in the field included Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
(1941), Winchester '73 (1950), and Harvey
Harvey (film)
Harvey is a 1950 film based on Mary Chase's play of the same name, directed by Henry Koster, and starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull. The story is about a man whose best friend is a pooka named Harvey—in the form of a six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch tall invisible rabbit.-Plot:Elwood P...
(1950).
As a director, his best-known efforts were in the science fiction
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
and fantasy
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
genres, often with producer Charles H. Schneer
Charles H. Schneer
Charles H. Schneer was a film producer most widely known for working with special effects pioneer, Ray Harryhausen. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia and died in Boca Raton, Florida, aged 88....
, among which were Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a 1958 American science fiction feature film produced by Bernard Woolner for Allied Artists Pictures. It was directed by Nathan H. Juran from a screenplay by Mark Hanna, and starred Allison Hayes, William Hudson and Yvette Vickers. The original music score was...
, 20 Million Miles To Earth
20 Million Miles to Earth
20 Million Miles to Earth is a 1957 American science fiction film written by Bob Williams and Christopher Knopf from an original treatment by Charlott Knight. The film was produced by Charles H. Schneer's Morningside Productions for Columbia Pictures and directed by Nathan H. Juran...
, The Brain from Planet Arous
The Brain from Planet Arous
The Brain from Planet Arous is a 1957 science-fiction film that features the theme of alien possession.-Plot:An outer-space terrorist from a planet named Arous - a brain-shaped creature named Gor - arrives on Earth and possesses young scientist Steve March...
, Jack the Giant Killer
Jack the Giant Killer
"Jack the Giant Killer" is a British fairy tale about a plucky lad who slays a number of giants during King Arthur's reign. The tale is characterized by violence, gore, and blood-letting. Giants are prominent in Cornish folklore and Welsh Bardic lore, but the source of "Jack the Giant Killer" is...
, The Deadly Mantis
The Deadly Mantis
The Deadly Mantis is a 1957 science fiction film produced by William Alland for Universal-International Pictures. It was directed by Nathan Juran from a screenplay by Martin Berkeley, and starred Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, and Pat Conway...
, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and First Men in the Moon (based on the novel by H.G. Wells). His television work included instalments of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the...
, Lost in Space
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
, and Land of the Giants
Land of the Giants
Land of the Giants was an hour-long American science fiction television program lasting two seasons beginning on September 22, 1968 and ending on March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen. Land of the Giants was the fourth of Allen's science fiction TV series. The show was...
.
In 1999, he was honored with the Lifetime Career Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA.
He died at the age of 95 in Palos Verdes
Palos Verdes
Palos Verdes is a name often used to refer to a group of coastal cities in the Palos Verdes Hills on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Filmography
The Boy Who Cried WerewolfThe Boy Who Cried Werewolf
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf is a 1973 film directed by Nathan H. Juran. The film stars Kerwin Matthews in the last film both he and Juran did after a few early films, including The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. In this thriller, a boy visits his father in a secluded cabin; the father is attacked by a...
(1973)
First Men In The Moon
First Men in the Moon
First Men in the Moon, also known as H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon, is a 1964 science fiction film directed by Nathan Juran. It is an adaptation by the noted science-fiction scriptwriter Nigel Kneale of the H. G...
(1964)
Jack the Giant Killer (1962)
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is a 1958 American science fiction feature film produced by Bernard Woolner for Allied Artists Pictures. It was directed by Nathan H. Juran from a screenplay by Mark Hanna, and starred Allison Hayes, William Hudson and Yvette Vickers. The original music score was...
(1958)
The Brain from Planet Arous
The Brain from Planet Arous
The Brain from Planet Arous is a 1957 science-fiction film that features the theme of alien possession.-Plot:An outer-space terrorist from a planet named Arous - a brain-shaped creature named Gor - arrives on Earth and possesses young scientist Steve March...
(1958)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
20 Million Miles To Earth
20 Million Miles to Earth
20 Million Miles to Earth is a 1957 American science fiction film written by Bob Williams and Christopher Knopf from an original treatment by Charlott Knight. The film was produced by Charles H. Schneer's Morningside Productions for Columbia Pictures and directed by Nathan H. Juran...
(1957)
The Deadly Mantis
The Deadly Mantis
The Deadly Mantis is a 1957 science fiction film produced by William Alland for Universal-International Pictures. It was directed by Nathan Juran from a screenplay by Martin Berkeley, and starred Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, and Pat Conway...
(1957)
The Black Castle
The Black Castle
The Black Castle is a mystery film, released by Universal Pictures in 1952. It was produced by William Alland, who would have better success two years later with Creature from the Black Lagoon...
(1952)