Sir Ken Adam, the production designer best known for his work on the James Bond films of the ’60s and ’70s, died on Thursday at the age of 95.
Adam’s biographer, Sir Christopher Frayling, confirmed to the BBC that the production designer died in his London home. “As a person he was remarkable. Roger Moore once said about him that his life was a great deal more interesting than most of the films that he designed,” he said.
Among his many visual masterpieces on screen were the war room beneath the Pentagon in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic “Dr. Strangelove” and the interior of Fort Knox in “Goldfinger” — two of many set designs he oversaw of locations most moviegoers could only imagine.
Adam worked on the Bond films beginning with the first, “Dr. No,” in 1962. He went on to create the sets for six other Bond films, including “Goldfinger,” “You Only Live Twice,” “Diamonds Are Forever” and Moonraker.”
The five-time Oscar nominee has won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction twice, in 1975 for “Barry Lyndon” and 1994 for “The Madness of King George.”
“The Bond family mourns the passing of our beloved friend Sir Ken Adam who was so responsible for the visual style of the James Bond films,” read a tweet from the official James Bond Twitter account on Thursday.
The Bond family mourns the passing of our beloved friend Sir Ken Adam who was so responsible for the visual style of the James Bond films.
— James Bond (@007) March 10, 2016