Robert Snyder was an award-winning documentary filmmaker (January 16, 1916 – March 21, 2004) who won an Academy Award in 1950 as producer of The Titan: Story of Michelangelo.

Biography

Robert Snyder was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 16, 1916. He married Allegra Fuller, the daughter of Buckminster Fuller, professor emeritus and former chairwoman of the dance department at University of California at Los Angeles. They had a son Jamie and a daughter Alexandra.

Snyder won the Academy Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary for The Titan: Story of Michelangelo. It was a German/Swiss film titled Michelangelo: Life of a Titan, first released in 1938 directed by Curt Oertel. Snyder re-edited and shortened the film, adding narration by Fredric March.

Snyder was nominated for a second Academy Award in 1958 for a documentary on insects, The Hidden World, narrated by Gregory Peck. Snyder produced or directed more than a half-dozen biographical documentaries about individuals, including his own future father-in-law, futurist Buckminster Fuller. Other subjects included American patron of the arts, poet, publisher, and peace activist Caresse Crosby, author Henry Miller, historians Will and Ariel Durant, Claudio Arrau and cellist Pablo Casals.

His 12-part series, Looking at Modern Art, and Michelangelo: Self-Portrait both appeared on the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service. He died after a lengthy illness in Pacific Palisades, California on March 21, 2004.

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