Oliver Smith (production designer)
Oliver Lemuel Smith (born February 13, 1918 in Waupun , Wisconsin , † January 23, 1994 in New York City , New York ) was an American set designer and producer on Broadway with occasional excursions to the film musical of the 1950s.
Live and act
Smith had received his artistic training in the second half of the 1930s and then joined the theater. Since 1942 he has been proven as a set designer on Broadway in New York; his specialty was initially operettas and musicals such as Rosalinda, The New Moon, Rhapsody and the original New York story On the Town , which he also produced. When several of these theatrical performances in Hollywood, beginning with On the Town, were made into film between 1949 and 1959, Smith was occasionally called in for advice or even had the film structures made. Together with his two colleagues Joseph C. Wright and Howard Bristol , he received an Oscar nomination for his drafts for Schwere Jungs (1955) .
Despite all of this, Smith always remained primarily a man of the theater. There he later also arranged dramatic performances beyond the musical theater. His return to film in the 1970s was only a guest star. In 1970 he produced the documentary “ Bernstein in London: Verdi's Requiem ”, and in 1976 he was an adviser on the dancer film Am Wendpunkt with Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft . Almost at the same time (1976/77) his productions of the ballet stagings by Giselle , Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, made in Lincoln Center, were prepared for American television.
Theater work
as a set designer, unless otherwise stated
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Filmography
Film architect
- 1953: curtain up! (The Band Wagon , only scene image of the music numbers)
- 1955: Oklahoma!
- 1955: Heavy boys - easy girls (Guys and Dolls)
- 1959: Porgy and Bess (Porgy and Bess)
Web links
- Oliver Smith in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Oliver Smith in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Smith, Oliver |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Smith, Oliver Lemuel (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American set designer and theater producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 13, 1918 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Waupun , Wisconsin, United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 23, 1994 |
| Place of death | New York City , New York, United States |