Andrew Shearer

Andrew Shearer was the father of actresses Norma and Athole Shearer and sound pioneer Douglas Shearer. Her children, Norma and Douglas, were the first brother sister to win an Academy Award.

He was the first in the Shearer family known to have suffered from a mental illness, a trait that would be passed down to Norma and sister Athole. Childhood friends of Norma described him as a ghost like presence in the house.

Around 1919, the Canadian economy fell into a temporary slump, where Andrew Shearer sold his business and lost most of the family money in the deal. He moved the family into a crime stricken area of Montreal, and Edith soon took Norma and Athole to New York to find jobs in the entertainment industry. The entire situation would affect Andrew for the rest of his life.

He and Norma seldom spoke to each other in the 1920s, and it is presumed that he was uninvited to Norma's wedding to Irving Thalberg at Edith's insistence. They divorced in the early 1930s, and he married Elizabeth Shearer who nursed him until his death in 1944. When he died, he had lost his last grip on reality, and Norma would face a similar fate.