Biography
Clement Hoyt "Clem" Beauchamp (August 26, 1898 – November 14, 1992), also known as Jerry Drew during his acting career in his 20s and early 30s, began working as a second unit director in 1935. He won the Academy Award for Best Assistant Director for The Lives of a Bengal Lancer and received another nomination the following year for The Last of the Mohicans.
Born in Bloomfield, Iowa, Beauchamp was one of two sons of Charles and Ula Beauchamp; his father was a druggist. The family moved to Denver, Colorado, and later to Fort Worth, Texas. After his parents divorced, his mother relocated with her sons to Los Angeles, California, where Beauchamp began working in films at age 16 as a stuntman. His earliest known film is Stupid, But Brave. He later appeared in The Painted Desert alongside Clark Gable and William Boyd. In 1933, he had an uncredited role as a newsreel cameraman in the W.C. Fields comedy International House.
Beauchamp was briefly married to actress and comedian Anita Garvin, known for her eleven films with Laurel and Hardy. In 1935, he married script girl Sydney Hein.
He worked on several Tarzan and Dick Tracy films, eventually advancing to production manager. In this role, he contributed to films such as Fred Zinnemann's The Men (1950) and High Noon (1952), Death of a Salesman (1951), and many of Stanley Kramer's notable projects, including The Defiant Ones (1958), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Later, he worked on Blake Edwards' The Great Race (1965) and William A. Graham's Waterhole No. 3 (1967). He also served as production manager for The Adventures of Superman television series starring George Reeves.
Beauchamp explained to The Literary Digest that his name is pronounced "Bo-shawm," with equal emphasis on both syllables. (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
