Article

Richard Day

Published Online September 26, 2012

Last Edited December 14, 2013

Richard Day, art director (born at Victoria, BC 9 May 1896; died at Los Angeles 23 May 1972). Richard Day, an illustrator and a captain in the Canadian army during the First World War, decided to try his luck in 1920s Hollywood.

Richard Day

Richard Day, art director (born at Victoria, BC 9 May 1896; died at Los Angeles 23 May 1972). Richard Day, an illustrator and a captain in the Canadian army during the First World War, decided to try his luck in 1920s Hollywood. A chance meeting with Erich von Stroheim led him to work on Foolish Wives (1921) and Greed (1925), films that set a new standard for realistic art direction. Day was with MGM from 1923-30, and from 1939-43 he headed the art department at 20th Century-Fox.

He was nominated 20 times for an Academy Award, and won 7 Oscars (the most ever for an art director) between 1935-54, for The Dark Angel, Dodsworth, How Green Was My Valley, My Gal Sal, This Above All, A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. He was one of the first inductees into the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame.