Born in
Boston, Nazarro entered the movie business during the silent era. He initially worked in
two-reelers. In 1945 he became a feature-film director at
Columbia Pictures, beginning with
Outlaws of the Rockies. Nazarro was one of Hollywood's busiest directors, directing as many as 13 pictures in one year. He made budget Westerns almost exclusively. From 1945 to 1948 he alternated between directing action
Westerns with Columbia's leading cowboy star
Charles Starrett and directing the "rural rhythm" band
The Hoosier Hot Shots in a series of musical-comedy Westerns. When the musical series lapsed in 1948, Nazarro concentrated on the Starrett Westerns, now featuring the
Durango Kid character. In 1950 Nazarro was assigned a non-Western
"B" picture,
David Harding, Counterspy. This resulted in Nazarro receiving more non-Western assignments and slightly higher budgets. He was also entrusted with more ambitious Western stories, with an emphasis on action but also a serious, elegiac view of the West, like
Al Jennings of Oklahoma (1951) starring
Dan Duryea. In 1952, Nazarro received an Academy Award nomination for
Best Story for
Bullfighter and the Lady.
Budd Boetticher, who had been a bullfighter, told his life story to Nazarro when he was working for him as an assistant director. Boetticher says he wrote it down, and Nazarro typed it up and sold the project to
Dore Schary at
MGM. Boetticher said that was the reason for Nazarro getting screen credit. after he had made around 60 films for the studio. He next made
Gun Belt for
United Artists and followed that with
The Bandits of Corsica, also for UA, and
Kansas Pacific for
Allied Artists Pictures, Nazarro died on September 8, 1986, and is buried in
Chapel of the Pines Crematory. ==Selected filmography==