The Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame will be induct William J. Creber – the production designer responsible for, among other achievements, the Statue of Liberty scene in the original Planet of the Apes – and frequent Cecil B. DeMille collaborator Roland Anderson into its ranks at the 24th Annual Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Awards next month.
The announcement was made today by President Nelson Coates, ADG and Awards Producer Scott Moses, ADG. The 2020 Awards will be held Saturday, February 1, at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown.
Creber, who died last year, is best known for his work on the Irwin Allen disaster movies The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno as well as the first three Planet of the Apes movies. He was Oscar-nominated three times, for The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974). He was Emmy-nominated for his work on ABC’s 1960s series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
“Bill Creber was the man who designed and then flipped cruise ships, burned skyscrapers and created an entire ape culture,” Coates said in a statement. “He was also a distinguished past ADG president and leader of the guild.”
Anderson, who died in 1989, was an Art Director and Production Designer whose career spanned more than five decades and earned 15 Academy Award nominations. Initially hired as a sketch artist in the 1920s, Anderson worked in the Paramount art department until his retirement in 1969. His first Oscar nomination for art direction was for 1932’s A Farewell to Arms, a nomination he shared with Paramount’s supervising art director Hans Dreier.
During his time at Paramount, Anderson designed more than 90 films including The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, The Major and the Minor, Road to Utopia, The Big Clock, Son of Paleface, White Christmas, The Country Girl and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. His final Oscar nominations came in 1963 for Love with the Proper Stranger and Come Blow Your Horn.
Anderson’s collaborations with DeMille include Cleopatra, The Buccaneer, Union Pacific and North West Mounted Police. He also worked with Frank Borzage, Billy Wilder, William Wyler, Michael Curtiz, Frank Tashlin, Frank Capra, and Blake Edwards.
“Roland Anderson worked on some of the most iconic film sets for Cecil B. Demille,” Coates said. “We are honored to celebrate both of these legendary artists for their inspiration, talents and contributions to the art of narrative design in motion pictures.
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