Science fiction film producer CHARLES H. SCHNEER has died, aged 88.

Schneer passed away on Wednesday (21Jan09) in Boca Raton, Florida after being ill for many years, his daughter Stacey Lee confirmed.

He began his movie career making training films while serving with the Army Signal Corps in World War II.

But it was after the war, during his tenure at Universal and Columbia Pictures in Hollywood, where he met Oscar-winning special-effects guru Ray Harryhausen - who worked with him to create a series of cult classic films.

Beginning their career together in the mid-1950s, the pair's credits include Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, It Came from Beneath the Sea, Jason and the Argonauts, and finally Clash of the Titans, in 1981 - starring Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith and Ursula Andress.

Schneer later founded his own company, Morningside Productions.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife, the former Shirley Sussman, another daughter Lesley Lesley Silver, a sister, Babette Schneer Katz, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A third daughter, Bettine Greifer, died in 2001.