Anton Furst

Anton Furst (6 May 1944 – 24 November 1991) was a production designer who won an Academy Award for designing the noirish nightmare version of Gotham City in Tim Burton's Batman (1989).^[1][2]

Life and career

Born Anthony Francis Furst in London, England, he trained at the Royal College of Art, London.^[3]

He designed two award-winning television films, Just One Kid and It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow for director/producer John Goldschmidt. He gained high praise for his work on Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves (1984). He went on to create convincing Vietnam War settings, without leaving England, for Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987), and in 1991 designed the themes for the Planet Hollywood restaurant in New York. His final credited film was Awakenings (1990).^[1]

Death

Furst committed suicide on 24 November 1991. He had separated from his wife and began taking Halcion, a sleeping drug that had been banned in Britain due to its possible side effects of amnesia, paranoia and depression. His drinking also became more of a problem.^[4] He was to check into a rehab in 1992, when he told his friends he was going to the car to fetch his cigarettes. Instead he suddenly jumped off an eighth story parking deck.^[5]

He was survived by a daughter, Vanessa King, a son, Nicholas Sergei Furst, his mother, Pamela Furst, and a sister, Jane Wearne.^[1]

References

External links

• Anton Furst at the Internet Movie Database
• Batmobile Builder: Tribute to Anton Furst, the REAL Batmobile Builder