Richard Sylbert
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Richard Sylbert (April 16, 1928 - March 23, 2002) was an Academy Award-winning production designer and art director, primarily for feature films.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sylbert fought in the Korean War [1] and attended the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania [2]. He began his career in the early days of television, designing productions of Hamlet (1953) and Richard II (1954) for the Hallmark Hall of Fame.
Sylbert's first film credit was Patterns (1956), a big screen adaptation of an Emmy Award-winning teleplay by Rod Serling. He went on to design Baby Doll, A Face in the Crowd, The Fugitive Kind, Murder, Inc., Splendor in the Grass, Walk on the Wild Side, Long Day's Journey into Night, The Manchurian Candidate, The Pawnbroker, Lilith, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Rosemary's Baby, Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Chinatown, Shampoo, Reds, Frances, The Cotton Club, Tequila Sunrise, Dick Tracy, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Carlito's Way, Mulholland Falls, My Best Friend's Wedding, and Trapped. He worked multiple times with directors Roman Polanski, Elia Kazan, Mike Nichols, and Warren Beatty [3].
Robert Evans named Sylbert his successor when he relinquished his position as production chief at Paramount Pictures in 1975. He oversaw The Bad News Bears, Nashville, and Days of Heaven before being replaced in 1978 [4].
Sylbert was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction six times and won twice, for Virginia Woolf and Dick Tracy. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design for Dick Tracy, and in 2000 was honored with the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sylbert died of cancer in Woodland Hills, California. He was the twin brother of Oscar-winning production designer Paul Sylbert and brother-in-law of costume designer Anthea Sylbert.
