“Forgotten Hollywood”- A Gentleman of Harvard…

Posted on March 11, 2016 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

steven spielberg   Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has been selected to give Harvard University’s 2016 commencement speech. The three-time Oscar winner is scheduled to address students May 26th at the Ivy League campus.  STEVEN SPIELBERG –>

   Harvard President Drew Faust stated that Spielberg’s profound creativity has fueled countless imaginations, and his films underscore what it is to be human. Spielberg follows others from Hollywood picked to give marquee commencement addresses this year. Actor Matt Damon is scheduled to speak June 3rd at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2002, Spielberg earned a degree from California State University, Long Beach, where he had attended in the 1960s, but dropped out.

   Spielberg has won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for Schindler’s List; and Best Director for Saving Private Ryan.

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war room   Ken Adam was the British production designer who gave Dr. Strangelove its cavernous War Room (left). The Berlin-born filmmaker won two Academy Awards in a career that spanned more than 70 films. He was revered for his indelible set artistry, including that for seven James Bond movies. Adam was behind the Fort Knox vaults of Goldfingerand Bond’s gadget-filled Aston Martin. Adam was knighted in 2003, a first for a production designer.

ken adam   Adam became enraptured by German Expressionist films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. He studied architecture, a background that would later prove useful for production design.          KEN ADAM –>

   After the war, he was hired to assist veteran designer William Cameron Menzies on the Oscar-winning 1956 film Around the World in 80 Days. Adam caught the eye of producer Albert Cubby Broccoli who enlisted him for 1962’s Dr. No, the first Bond film. He continued to be instrumental in crafting the iconic backdrops and torture devices that helped define Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker.

   Adam won his first Oscar in 1976 for Barry Lyndon, which he shared with Vernon Dixon and Roy Walker. His second came in 1995 for The Madness of King George, which he shared with Carolyn Scott. Other movies he designed include Peter O’Toole’s version of Goodbye Mr. Chips, Ben-HurChitty Chitty Bang Bang, Sleuth, Agnes of God, and Addam’s Family Values.

   Steven Spielberg once told the production designer that his War Room on Dr. Strangelove was the best set ever put on celluloid, high praise from the filmmaker. Ken Adam was 95.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

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