John Box facts for kids
John Allan Hyatt Box (born January 27, 1920 – died March 7, 2005) was a famous British production designer and art director for movies. He was incredibly talented at making movie sets look real. He won the Oscar for Best Art Direction four times! He also won the BAFTA award three times. This is a record for both awards.
John Box was known for making amazing movie locations. He could turn ordinary places into exotic scenes. For example, he once built a whole Chinese city with walls in Snowdonia, a mountainous area in Wales!
Contents
Early Life and Education
John Box was born in London, England. He went to Highgate School from 1934 to 1938. Because his father was a civil engineer, John spent a lot of his childhood in Sri Lanka. At that time, Sri Lanka was a British colony called Ceylon.
After school, he studied architecture at North London Polytechnic. During World War II, he served in the British Army. He joined the Hampshire Regiment in 1940. Later, he moved to the Royal Armoured Corps in 1942.
A Career in Film Design
After the war, John Box started his career in movies. He learned from Carmen Dillon, who was also an Oscar-winning art director. He worked as her assistant on films like The Browning Version (1951) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1952).
First Steps as Art Director
John Box's first jobs as an art director were on smaller movies. His very first film was a science fiction movie called The Gamma People (1956). His big chance came when director Mark Robson asked him to work on The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1957). This movie starred the famous actress Ingrid Bergman.
After that, John Box worked on other notable films. These included Our Man in Havana (1959) and The World of Suzie Wong (1960).
Working with David Lean and Oscar Wins
John Box became the production designer for the epic film Lawrence of Arabia (1962). This was his first time working with the famous British director David Lean. For this movie, John Box won his first Oscar! He got the job because the original designer, John Bryan, became ill.
He then designed Of Human Bondage (1964). He worked with David Lean again on Doctor Zhivago (1965). For his amazing set designs in Doctor Zhivago, he won another Oscar.
BAFTA Awards and More Success
The next year, John Box won his first BAFTA award. This was for his incredible recreation of Tudor England in A Man for All Seasons (1966).
His next big project was the musical Oliver! (1968). For this film, he recreated Victorian era London. He won another Oscar for Oliver!. He won his final Oscar three years later for Nicholas and Alexandra (1971). This film showed his detailed work in recreating Russia before the October Revolution.
In 1972, Box worked on Travels with My Aunt. He received another Oscar nomination for this film. He won a BAFTA for his work on The Great Gatsby (1974). He won the BAFTA again the next year for Rollerball.
Later Career and Retirement
John Box worked on Sorcerer (1977) and The Keep (1983). These films were expensive but not very successful.
He worked with David Lean one last time on A Passage to India (1984). For this film, John Box received nominations for both an Oscar and a BAFTA. He retired after this movie. However, he returned in the mid-1990s to work on Black Beauty and First Knight. First Knight was his first time using computer-assisted set design. It was also his final film.
John Box was honored with the OBE award in 1998.
See also
- Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame
In Spanish: John Box para niños
