Roger Heman, born in the hills of Kentucky in 1898, made his way west
to LA at a very early age, arriving in 1915. Since he knew how to drive
he got a job delivering furniture. One of these deliveries was to the
Metro Studios in Boyle Heights. Impressed with his appearance and the
fact he could read and write they gave him a job as a prop boy and
gopher. He worked for director John H. Collins and his wife actress Viola Dana and
even appeared in The Winding Trail (1918) as a cowboy. He worked with 'Jack Gilbert' the
following year on Should a Woman Tell? (1919) and with 'Rex Ingram' and Rudolph Valentino in Die vier Reiter der Apokalypse (1921)
of which he appeared in a bit part as a gaucho. With the formation of
the new United Artists Studio, Roger left Metro and worked on many of
the Pickford films of both Mary and Jack. He did much travel and acted
as location manager too. In 1925 with Goldwyn becoming the dominant
force on the lot he became an Asst. Director starting with Das Opfer der Stella Dallas (1925)
where he befriended a younger Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who he would take to the movies
while the rest of the crew went south of the border to party and
continue with Das Rätsel der Fledermaus (1926) as well as working under Lubitch on Der König der Bernina (1929) with
John Barrymore and with Brenon on The Rescue (1929) which was Goldwyn's last silent
picture. United Artists was the last studio to convert to sound but
when they did they chose Roger to lead the way by sending him to the
new AMPAS School of Sound Recording where he graduated in Class 2 on
December 16, 1929.It was the end of an era for Roger as well as the
silent period and the 54 films he worked on during it. During the
beginning of the sound period at UA, he distinguished himself with
Vidor's Street Scene (1931) and Milestone's Regen (1932) with Joan Crawford. At this
same time a new company, 20th Century, not having a lot of its own,
having been founded by a young Daryl Zanuck, newly fired from WB, was
using the UA Sound Department for some of its first motion pictures
Die Rothschilds (1934) and _Misérables, Les (1935)_ and Roger was recruited. He
spent the rest of his working life with 20th Century Fox, becoming the
head of their Sound Re-Recording Department and a trusted Zanuck
confidant often working directly with Zanuck from rushes as well as in
post production. He was put in charge of the studio's 'A' pictures and
handled special effects with Fred Sersen, dubbing and re-recording and
musical scoring with Al Newman and Cyril J. Mockridge. He shared the first Special
Effects Oscar, given for Nacht über Indien (1939) and winning again for Crash Dive (1943). He was
nominated individually numerous times and won for the studio Sound
Oscars for Der Kommandeur (1949) and Alles über Eva (1950). He was credited by Zanuck for his help
in developing Cinemascope ("you were a mountain of strength...") as
well as for his efforts in using surround sound like effects for
Der Tag, an dem die Erde stillstand (1951) for scenes where the spaceship comes and goes and for Gort's
death ray. He married the love of his life, Jesse, a prominent banker's
daughter he courted for five years and had a son Roger Heman Jr., who, having
been brought into the business by his father at a young age, spent 37
years with Universal and spent many years with Spielberg as he was
starting out (he won an Academy Award for Der weiße Hai (1975)). Roger worked until
the 1960's when he had a devastating stroke. He passed away in the
Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, begun by his two close friends
Mary Pickford and Jean Hersholt, in 1969.
