Richard Sylbert was born on April 16, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a production designer and art director, known for Chinatown (1974), The Graduate (1967) and Carlito's Way (1993). He was married to Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Susanna Moore and Carol Godshalk. He died on March 23, 2002 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, ...
Carol Godshalk, Susanna Moore, Sharmagne Leland-St. John
Children
Douglas, Jon, Mark, Lulu and Daisy
Star Sign
Aries
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[on "Reds"]: Jack Reed and Louise Bryant are innocents abroad; that's always been my image of them. This poor sweet American couple in this mess. He was the bumpkin, this big, energetic kid. The fool. And Warren Beatty is the one actor I know who's never afraid to play a fool. And after the revolution, Russia was a pigsty. Rotten, rotten. They were eating horses.
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Elia Kazan (Sept 7, 1909-Sept 2, 2003, age 94), producer and director, hired identical twin brothers, born April 16, 1928, Richard "Dick" (deceased March 23, 2002, age 74) and twin brother Paul Sylbert as his "Baby Doll" art department set designers, both twin brothers sharing the art director credit. The Sylbert twins had primarily been working in New York City's live television production as IATSE #829 scenic designers and set decorators. The Sylbert twins had Kazan hire their fellow New York City CBS television studio set decorator Gene Callahan (Nov 7, 1923-Dec 26, 1990, age 67, cancer), who joined them in Benoit, Mississippi to scout local locations and prep the film's primary plantation house location. Consulting and working with Elia Kazan, Gene and the Sylbert twins shared their film designing duties. Knowing of Gene Callahan's Louisiana heritage, Gene was the perfect choice to decorate the squalid run down plantation house interiors and plantation sight exteriors. Gene found the "baby doll" iron bed in a local antique shop, which became a featured prop in the film's set and playbill advertisements. The Sylbert twins and Gene were always on the film set with Kazan and his cinema photographer, during cast/camera rehearsal blocking shot, subsequent filming, on every set up. This was a natural condition to a television art department team, being a part of the cast and crew rehearsal and filming schedule, day and night. When not with the film crew, they would be preparing the next scene/film shot for the company move. Upon completion of the Mississippi filming, Gene took the "iron baby doll bed" back with him to New York City, placing the bed in his spacious and large West Side apartment's living room, a conversation piece! Kazan relied on Gene's Southern upbringing and scene interpretation in his rehearsals and scene motivation. This professional "Baby Doll" film relationship and experience secured the Sylbert's and Callahan's future alliance with Elia Kazan's future creative film assignments.
The Hollywood Film Festival planned on honoring Richard Sylbert with the "Hollywood Outstanding Achievement in Production Design Award" in 2002, but after his death they decided to renamed the Festival's annual Production Design award in 2002 to honor the memory of the late Production Designer. The award is now called the "Hollywood Richard Sylbert Outstanding Achievement in Production Design Award.".
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Sylbert was the first production designer to serve as the chief of production at a studio when he took on the job at Paramount, succeeding Robert Evans. Evans, who had produced the classic neo-noir Chinatown (1974), for which Sylbert received an Oscar nomination, was impressed by his relationships with such heavy-weight talents as Warren Beatty, Mike Nichols and Roman Polanski. He was also impressed by Sylbert's grasp of visual storytelling and designated Sylbert as his successor when he stepped down as Paramount's production chief in 1975. Though Sylbert's executive stint produced several hits, including The Bad News Bears (1976)), his preference for mature, challenging art-house fare such as Robert Altman's masterpiece, Nashville (1975), and Terrence Malick's visually stunning Days of Heaven (1978) led Paramount head Barry Diller to sack Sylbert in 1978.
$950,000
