John Lee Beatty is an American scenic designer. He was born in Palo Alto, California and grew up in Claremont. His father was dean of students at Pomona College and his mother had also work in academia. While he was English major at Brown University, he also directed, wrote, acted and drew posters and scenery for college productions. After graduating Brown, he entered Yale School of Drama where he was trained by Ming Cho Lee, as well as Donald Oenslager and Jo Mielziner.
In New York, he was an assistant of Douglas Schmidt and started making scenery for Broadways. One year later, he joined the old Circle Repertory Company where his first Broadway show Knock Knock in 1976, had appeared.
Beatty has designed sets for more than seventy Broadway productions since 1973 including The Apple Tree, Losing Louie, Heartbreak House, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Rabbit Hole, The Color Purple, Crimes of the Heart, The Odd Couple, Doubt, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Twentieth century, Wonderful Town, Dinner at Eight, Morning's at Seven, Proof, Footloose, Ivanov, The Little Foxes, Once Upon a Mattress, Chicago, A Delicate Balance, The Heiress, Redwood Curtain, A Small Family Business, The Most Happy Fella, Ain't Misbehavin', The Octette Bridge Club, Duet for One, Fifth of July, Talley's Folly, The Innocents, and Knock Knock. Beatty won Tony Awards for his designs on Twentieth century and Talley's Folly and received eleven other nominations for his work. Beatty also has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design four times and received ten other Drama Desk nominations.
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Wulp for The Crucifer of Blood |
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design 1979-1980 for Talley's Folly |
Succeeded by John Lee Beatty for Fifth of July |
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