Merrill Pye

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Merrill Pye (born August 14, 1902 in Bismarck , North Dakota , † November 17, 1975 in Hollywood , California ) was an American production designer .

Life

Merrill Pye began his career in 1925 at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) with silent films such as Sally, Irene and Mary , Floods of Passion or Annie Laurie - A Hero's Song in the Highlands . In the 1930s and 1940s he was responsible for the production design for many of MGM's films. However, this was often not read in the credits of the films, as Cedric Gibbons had been contractually guaranteed that he would be named as the person responsible for all MGM films, no matter how much he had done for the film. In many dance films in particular , Pye was instead named under Musical presentation , even though it had nothing to do with the music. In Broadway Melody 1950 he also directed one of the dance interludes. After the war he was responsible for the production design in films such as Arena , The Scarlet Rock , The First Bullet Hits or, above all, The Invisible Third . From the end of the 1950s he also worked for television series such as Twilight Zone , The Eleventh Hour , Solo for ONCEL or Der Geist and Mrs. Muir .

Merrill Pye was successively married to actresses Patricia Avery, Mary Halsey, Natalie Draper and Doris Simons.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1960 , Merrill Pye was nominated for The Invisible Third , along with William A. Horning , Robert F. Boyle , Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy in the Best Production Design (Color) category. However, the award went to Ben Hur .

He was also twice nominated for an Emmy . 1963 in the category Best Artistic Direction and Scene Design together with George W. Davis for The Eleventh Hour (the award went to Disneyland ) and 1966 in the category Best Artistic Director together with George W. Davis and James W. Sullivan for solo for ONCEL , with the award going to The Hollywood Palace .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pye, Merrill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pye, Merrill Manley (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American production designer
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Bismarck , North Dakota , United States
DATE OF DEATH 17th November 1975
Place of death Hollywood , California , United States