Russell Shearman ( died May 5 , 1956 ) was an American special effects artist . He won a Technical Achievement Award at the 19th Academy Awards in 1946 along with the RKO Radio Studio Special Effects Dept. for the development of a new method of simulating falling snow on motion picture sets for It 's a Wonderful Life . It 's a Wonderful Life won just the one Academy Award , in the Technical Achievement category for developing a new method of creating artificial snow . Before It 's a Wonderful Life , fake movie snow was mostly made from cornflakes painted white and it was so loud when stepped on that any snow-filled scenes with dialogue had to be re-dubbed afterwards . RKO studio 's head of special effects , Russell Sherman , developed a new compound , utilizing water , soap flakes , foamite and sugar . He won an Academy Award during the 21st Academy Awards for Best Special Effects . He won for the film '' Portrait of Jennie '' . He shared his win with Paul Eagler , Charles L. Freeman , Joseph McMillan Johnson , Clarence Slifer and James G. Stewart
19th Academy Awards
19th Academy Awards
Russell Shearman