Henry Bumstead

Henry Bumstead

Lloyd Henry Bumstead (March 17, 1915 – May 24, 2006) was an American cinematic art director and production designer. In a career that spanned over fifty-five years he won two Academy Awards: the first for To Kill a Mockingbird, and the second for The Sting. In addition, he was nominated for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven.

Bumstead was born in Ontario, California and, following his graduation from University of Southern California, joined Paramount Pictures in 1948. He learned his trade from Hans Dreier, with whom he worked on a number of films beginning with Saigon. Following Dreier's retirement in 1951 he worked with Hal Pereira, whom Paramount had brought in to replace Dreier. During these early years, Bumstead worked on numerous films, including My Friend Irma, My Friend Irma Goes West, and The Bridges at Toko-Ri. However, his big break came in 1956 when he worked with Pereira on Alfred Hitchcock's remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much. He went on to work on three further Hitchcock films: Vertigo, Topaz and Family Plot.

In 1961, Bumstead left Paramount to join Universal Studios, where he formed a close partnership with Alexander Golitzen. Whilst at Universal he established relationships with George Roy Hill and Clint Eastwood, which began on Slaughterhouse-Five and High Plains Drifter respectively. He went on to work with both men on numerous films.

Bumstead worked on many films during his career, including: Slap Shot, A Little Romance, The World According to Garp, Cape Fear, Unforgiven, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Space Cowboys, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby.

Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and the companion film Letters from Iwo Jima (2007) were Bumstead's final two projects. Bumstead was 91 years old when he worked on these projects. He died before either film was released into theaters, and Flags of Our Fathers was dedicated to him (the credit dedicates the film to him using his nickname "Bummy".)