Oscar-Winner Henry Bumstead Dies From Cancer

Oscar-winning art director and production designer Henry Bumstead has died from prostate cancer, according to the Los Angeles Times. Bumstead, who was born in Ontario, California, in 1915, began his career during the Depression as an apprentice draftsman at RKO Studios but was quickly hired by Paramount Pictures where he was taken under the wing of art-department head Hans Dreir (Oscar-winning art director for Sunset Boulevard). After World War II he began designing films for Paramount and by the middle of the next decade his stint at the studio led him to work with Alfred Hitchcock on The Man Who Knew Too Much and then Vertigo, the latter which got him his first Academy Award nomination. In 1960 he moved on to Universal and collaborations with Robert Mulligan. He won his first Oscar in 1963 for Mulligan's To Kill a Mockingbird. Then the 70s saw him working a few times with George Roy Hill and earning his second Oscar for The Sting.

Bumstead had a fairly weak period during the 1980s, but after teaming with Martin Scorsese on the remake of Cape Fear in 1991, he was hired by Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven, which led to another nomination. From that point he worked with Eastwood on eight more films up until he was diagnosed with cancer during production of Million Dollar Baby. In 1998, Bumstead, who was known as "Bummy" to friends and colleagues, received a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Art Directors.

In an interview with MovieMaker Magazine, Henry Bumstead summed up his life as a great success: "I'm very happy. Nobody could've had more fun than I had. I've seen the world first class and worked with lots of talented and wonderful people. Sometimes I wake up in the night and just can't believe that I've been able to raise four kids, send them all to universities and, at the same time, been so lucky to do what I've always loved to do. It's been a great life every minute of it."