Harold Michelson

Harold Michelson (February 15, 1920 – March 1, 2007) was an American production designer and art director. In addition, he worked as an illustrator and/or storyboard artist on numerous films from the 1940s through the 1990s.

Biography

A native of New York City, Michelson worked with the

After the war, Michelson became an illustrator. He worked on[magazines while attending the

Throughout the remainder of the 1960s, he worked as either illustrator or storyboard artist on films such as West Side Story, The Birds, Cleopatra, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate. During the 1970s, he was an illustrator for films like Fiddler on the Roof and Cross of Iron; in the 1980s, he worked on Firestarter and The Cotton Club, and he was a visual consultant on the 1986 remake of The Fly.

His career as an art director started in television, beginning with

Michelson died at the Motion Picture & Television Fund retirement home, following a long illness, at the age of 87.^[1]

The documentary film Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story describes the life and career of Michelson and his wife Lillian, who became a respected film researcher.^[2]

Awards and honors

Michelson shared his first Academy Award nomination for his production designs on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, contributing to the interior and exterior design on the newly refit USS Enterprise. He shared a second nomination for his art direction on the 1983 film Terms of Endearment.^[3]

In 1999 Michelson was honored with the Art Directors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2002, he received the Outstanding Achievement in Production Design award from the Hollywood Film Festival.^[4]

He was inducted into the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame in 2009.^[5]

References