Stuart Craig
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Biography
This leading British production designer has become well-known for his visually stunning work on numerous period films. Over a career that has spanned some two decades, Stuart Craig has earned two Oscars and four additional nominations and he has forged fruitful collaborations with several film directors, notably Sir Richard Attenborough, Pat O'Connor and Stephen Frears.
Craig gained his first experience working in local theater before breaking into films as a junior draftsman on the uneven James Bond spoof "Casino Royale" (1967). He graduated to assistant art director and found his niche with the historical drama "Mary, Queen of Scots" (1971). In 1977 he became a full-fledged art director with Richard Attenborough's "A Bridge Too Far," assisting in creating the look of war-torn Holland. The film marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with Craig serving as production designer on every subsequent Attenborough film with the exception of "A Chorus Line" (1985). He won his first Oscar recreating eight decades of colonial India in "Gandhi" (1982) and went on to create colonial South Africa in "Cry Freedom" (1987). For "Chaplin" (1992), Craig designed a scheme that gradually added color as the film moved from depicting the world of silent films to more contemporary times. "Shadowlands" (1993) recreated a fusty 50s-era world of academia while "In Love and War" (1996) was another war-time would-be epic, complete with battle sequences and a period hospital.
Craig has won acclaim for his work with other directors as well. An atypical design was the comic-book inspired "Superman" (1978) for which Craig not only created the home planet of Krypton, with its futuristic look, but also the Middle American town of Smallville and the bustling, New York-inspired Metropolis. His stark designs of Victorian England created the world inhabited by "The Elephant Man" (1980, directed by David Lynch). "The Mission" (1986) recreated an 18th Century Jesuit church amid the Brazilian jungle. Craig earned a second Oscar for his elegant French Provincial decor for Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988) and won critical kudos for the Edwardian mansion, with its Gothic airs, contrasted with the lush, richly varied hues of "The Secret Garden" (1993). For Anthony Minghella's "The English Patient" (1996), he had the daunting task of creating the various worlds inhabited by the main characters, including the desert with its natural beauty, a bombed out Italian monastery and pre-World War II North Africa. Craig's designs worked on several levels and aided in creating that film's gorgeous visuals and he received a third Oscar for Best Art Direction.
Filmography
Producer (Feature Film)
Art Director (Feature Film)
Production Designer (Feature Film)
Sound (Special)
Life Events
1967
Entered the film industry as a junior draftsman for "Casino Royale"
1971
First credit as an assistant art director, "Mary, Queen of Scots"
1977
Feature debut as an art director, "A Bridge Too Far"; also marked first collaboration with Richard Attenborough
1980
Debut as a production designer, "Saturn 3"
1982
Won Oscar for his production design on Attenborough's "Gandhi"
1984
First film as a co-producer, "Cal"; also served as production designer; first collaboration with Pat O'Connor
1988
First collaboration with Stephen Frears, "Dangerous Liaisons"; won second Oscar
1993
Earned acclaim for his design of Agnieszka Holland's "The Secret Garden"
1996
Won third Oscar for his work on Anthony Minghella's "The English Patient"
2001
Served as production designer on "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"
2002
Production Designer on "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"; received a BAFTA nomination for Production Design
2005
Earned an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
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