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John Box
Life Time
27 January 1920 - 7 March 2005
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He was born on January 27, 1920 in London. After graduating from the London School of Architecture, in the late forties he came to cinema. He worked as a decorator in the films directed by Anthony Esquith “Woman in Doubt” (1950), “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1952). Subsequently, as art director, he was responsible for the decoration of the films “Million Pound Bank Ticket” (1953, Ronald Nim), “Zarak” (1956, Terence Young) and “Our Man in Havana” (1959, Carol Reed). In the sixties, already
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He was born on January 27, 1920 in London. After graduating from the London School of Architecture, in the late forties he came to cinema. He worked as a decorator in the films directed by Anthony Esquith “Woman in Doubt” (1950), “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1952). Subsequently, as art director, he was responsible for the decoration of the films “Million Pound Bank Ticket” (1953, Ronald Nim), “Zarak” (1956, Terence Young) and “Our Man in Havana” (1959, Carol Reed). In the sixties, already being a production artist, Box became one of the best specialists in his field. His first major success was associated with two landmark paintings by British director David Lean "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) and "Doctor Zhivago" (1965), for which he was awarded "Oscar" in the category "Best decoration". Equally successful for him were two subsequent films - the historical drama Fred Zinnemann "Man for All Time" (1966), for which he was awarded the British Academy Award and the popular musical Carol Reed "Oliver!" (1968), which brought him a third Oscar. In the next decade, he worked on such large-scale films as Nicholas and Alexandra (1971, Franklin J. Scheffner, Academy Award) and The Great Gatsby (1974, Jack Clayton). Among other films in which he was engaged in that period, the most famous was the socio-fiction film Rollerball (1975, Norman Jewison). Almost twenty years after Doctor Zhivago, Box again turned to work with David Lin, taking part in the production of his colonial drama A Trip to India (1984), which became the last picture of the famous director. After that, there was a long pause in his career and Box returned to cinema only in the first half of the nineties. His work can be seen in Black Beauty (1994, Caroline Thompson) and The First Knight (1995, Jerry Zucker).