Carmen Dillon

Carmen Dillon (25 October 1908 – 12 April 2000) was an English film art director and production designer who won an Oscar for the Olivier version of Hamlet (1948).^[1]

Life

Dillon was born in Hendon to Irish-born Joseph Thomas Dillon and his wife Teresa. She was one of six children, for whom their Catholic parents paid to be well educated. Carmen went to the

Dillon initially worked as an architect and designer, and was invited to design the cover for the newly formed Electrical Association for Women.^[3]

However in 1934 she was invited to join the film industry.^[4] This built on her enthusiasm for acting and drawing. She became an art director and production designer, and won an Oscar for Laurence Olivier's 1948 film of Hamlet.^[1] It was said that for twenty-five years she was the only woman art director in the British film industry.^[5]

None of the three Dillon sisters married, and they spent 42 years together in a large flat in Kensington. Tess Dillon had led the physics department at

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