Film Industry Art Director. He was a Russian-born American art director and production designer, who made a name for himself in a 40-year career in what was a less-known group of the film industry. As the supervising art director at Universal Pictures, he is credited on more than 300 films. In an era before computers, his job description was to made the environment needed for every scene in a film, which included creating saloons for cowboys, an ancient Roman war battleground, a courthouse for a trial, or finding an outdoor scene to mimic the Yukon. He received his first Academy Award Nomination in 1941 for "Foreign Correspondent." With his colleagues, he was nominated for 14 Oscars, receiving three: "Phantom of the Opera" in 1943, "Spartacus" in 1960 and "To Kill a Mockingbird" in 1962. Born into the Russian Empire noble family of Golitsyn, his family escaped by train during the Russian Revolution in 1917 to the United States by way of Siberia; Harbin, China; Vancouver, Canada before settling in Seattle, Washington. He earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Washington in 1931. After going to Hollywood, he found work as a movie extra and stunt horseman in silent movies. Beginning as an assistant to the art director at MGM in the early 1930s, he was at United Artists by 1935, where he received his first official credit with the 1935 film, "The Call of the Wild." In the early 1940s, he joined Universal, becoming the supervising art director in 1953 and retiring in 1973. His last film, credited as production designer, was the disaster movie "Earthquake," his last Academy Award nomination. He served on the Academy Award Board of Governors for several years. In 2011 he was admitted to the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame. He was married 72 years, and the couple had a son and a daughter.