Andrew Shearer (1864 – February 6, 1944) was a Canadian lumber merchant and amateur ice hockey player.

He was forced to move the family to a more modest part of Montreal, and his wife Edith soon took her two daughters to New York City to find jobs in the entertainment industry, and Douglas stayed with his father.

All of his three children later pursued careers within the film industry in Hollywood, Norma and Athole as actresses and Douglas as a sound designer and recording director.

Andrew Shearer allegedly was prone to manic depression, and Norma described how he "moved like a shadow or a ghost around the house.

[4] Around 1919, at the tail end of World War I, the Canadian economy fell into a slump, and he sold the business and lost most of the family money in the deal.