Randall Duell
Randall Duell (* July 14, 1903 in Russell County, Kansas, † November 28, 1992 in Los Angeles, California ) was an American architect, art director and production designer, who has been nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Production Design.
Life
After schooling studied duel architecture at the University of Southern California (USC ) and joined after graduating in 1925 in the architectural firm Weber, Stanton and Spaulding in Los Angeles. For this, he designed the buildings of the Catalina Casino in Avalon and parts of Pomona College in Claremont.
Duel began his career as an art director and production designer in the film industry in Hollywood in 1937 with the film My Dear Miss Aldrich, a comedy - drama directed by George B. Seitz with Edna May Oliver, Maureen O'Sullivan and Walter Pidgeon in the lead roles, and worked until 1959 at the scenic features of almost sixty films.
His first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Production Design, he received along with Cedric Gibbons and Edwin B. Willis at the Academy Awards in 1942 for the black and white film When Ladies Meet (1941 ), one directed by Robert Z. Leonard comedy film starring Joan Crawford, Robert Taylor and Greer Garson in the lead roles. Another Oscar nomination in this category, followed in 1943 by Gibbons, Willis and Jack D. Moore years found for the black and white film (1942 ), a melodrama directed by Mervyn LeRoy with Ronald Colman, Greer Garson and Philip Dorn.
He received his final Oscar nomination for Best Production Design again with Gibbons, Willis and Henry Grace at the Academy Awards in 1956 for the black and white film The Blackboard Jungle (1955 ) by Richard Brooks with Glenn Ford, Anne Francis and Louis Calhern.
After ending his career in Hollywood as an architect, he was responsible for the construction and development of most U.S. theme parks. After the success of Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, the then park manager CV Wood founded together with Wade Rubottom Marco Engineering, the duel 1958 joined. In the following years the company has built similar parks like Pleasure Iceland in Boston and Freedomland in the Bronx, New York. After the success of his designs for Six Flags in Irving he founded in 1961 in Santa Monica Randall Duell and Associates his own company, which he built rapidly into a leading company in the design of leisure and theme parks. In addition to the parks in the Six Flags chain, he designed together with art directors such as John DeCuir theme parks such as Astro World, Magic Mountain, Kings Iceland and Kings Dominion.