His short film Kenji Comes Home (1949) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

[2] He enrolled at the University of Minnesota from 1933 until his graduation in 1935,[2][4] studying film production in the school's visual education department.

[10] Heard entered the television market in the early 1950s with the production of a 13-part series of short films titled What's Your Troubles, featuring Dr. and Mrs. Norman Vincent Peale.

[16][17] Heard died on February 27, 1964,[18] aged 50, after undergoing surgery for cancer at Veterans Hospital in San Fernando.

[14] Funeral services were held at the Hollywood Congregational Church and burial took place at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena.