RIP Henry Bumstead (1915-2006)

The film industry lost a true genius of his chosen profession recently...While his name may not be instantly recognizable, the odds are still pretty good that you've seen a film or two (at least), that he's worked on. After all, over the course of six decades, he managed to work on some of the best films ever made.

On May 24th, 2006 Oscar winning production designer and art director Henry Bumstead, died following a battle with Prostate Cancer. He was 91 years old.

As someone who has admired and studied the work of director Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) for a long time, the first time I remember seeing Bumstead's name was while watching The Man Who Knew Too Much from 1956. They would team up again in 1958 for the director's masterpiece Vertigo where Bumstead made full use of the San Francisco and other northern California locales to help tell the story.

He also made the sets for Martin Scorsese's uncompromising 1991 version of Cape Fear come alive. From the seeming safety of suburbia to the small dark apartment of the vengeful Max Cady (Robert De Niro), its all there

Bumstead enjoyed a long working relationship with actor/director Clint Eastwood. The duo worked together on Blood Work (2002) Space Cowboys (2000)--giving us a realistic view of NASA, Million Dollar Baby (2004), the classic Unforgiven (1991) Absolute Power (1997) and Mystic River (2003). It's a relationship that will live on throughout this year with both Red Sun, Black Sand and The Flags of Our Fathers due out in late fall--telling two halves of a story from World War II--The Battle Of Iwo Jima.

Bumstead won 2 Academy awards. One for the timeless classic To Kill a Mockingbird, and the other for the The Sting . In 1997, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Directors Guild.

For more on Henry Bumstead and his career, be sure to read the complete obituary as filed by the Associated Press and appearing in the New York Times.

Gone But Never Forgotten....