John Allan Hyatt Box OBE, (January 27, 1920—March 7, 2005), was a British film production designer and art director. During his career he won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction on four occasions and won its BAFTA equivalent three times, making him the most decorated film designer of all time. Throughout his career he earned a reputation for recreating exotic locations in rather more mundane surroundings, for example he once created a walled...
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John Allan Hyatt Box OBE, (January 27, 1920—March 7, 2005), was a British film production designer and art director. During his career he won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction on four occasions and won its BAFTA equivalent three times, making him the most decorated film designer of all time. Throughout his career he earned a reputation for recreating exotic locations in rather more mundane surroundings, for example he once created a walled Chinese city in Snowdonia.
Box was born in London, briefly attending Highgate School but, due to his father's job as a civil engineer, spent most of his childhood in Sri Lanka, then the British colony of Ceylon. After studying architecture at North London Polytechnic he served in the Royal Armoured Corps during World War II.
After the war Box served his apprenticeship an assistant to the art director Carmen Dillon, herself an Oscar winner. During this period he worked on several British films, including Anthony Asquith's 1951 adaptation of...
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