William Cameron Menzies

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William Cameron Menzies (July 29, 1896 - March 5, 1957) was an American Academy Award-winning and versatile art director. He earned acclaim on silent films and later pioneered the use of color in film for dramatic effect. In his long career spanning five decades from 1918 to 1956, he pioneered the role of production designer but also worked as a director, producer, and screenwriter.

He was born in New Haven, Connecticut before moving to Los Angeles, California. He died of cancer in 1957 and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Notable films he worked on include The Thief of Bagdad (1924 version), The Thief of Bagdad (1940 version), The Beloved Rogue, Gone with the Wind, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Foreign Correspondent, Invaders from Mars, and Around the World in Eighty Days. He is said to have directed the Salvador Dalí-designed dream sequence in Hitchcock's Spellbound. However, his most lauded contribution to cinema history unquestionably being Things to Come.

[edit] Awards

His first Oscar was won jointly for the silent films The Dove and Tempest in 1929 at the 1st Academy Awards. The following year, he was nominated again (but did not win) for his work on the films Alibi and The Awakening in the 2nd Academy Awards and for Bulldog Drummond in the 3rd Academy Awards (both held in 1930.) He also received an honorary Academy Award for his work on Gone with the Wind in 1940. (Honorary awards are plaques only. He did not receive a second Oscar statue.)