Emile Kuri

An eight-time Oscar nominee and winner of two Academy Awards, set decorator Emile Kuri worked with some of the biggest names in showbusiness on some of the most memorable films in history. Perhaps associated most closely with Disney Studios, Kuri served as set designer on such classics as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) -- for which he gained one of his two Oscars, the other being for The Heiress (1949) -- The Absent Minded Professor (1942), Mary Poppins (1964), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), The Love Bug (1969), and The Parent Trap (1961). Kuri eventually served as head of the decorating department for Disney, overseeing all TV and film set design, as well as the design of both of the studio's themeparks. Outside of his work with Disney, Kuri worked for such legendary directors as Alfred Hitchcock (Rope, 1948) and Frank Capra (It's a Wonderful Life, 1946), as well as for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, serving 11 years on its board of governors. After a lucrative 40-year career, Emile Kuri died on Oct. 10, 2000, of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund in Woodland Hills, CA, at the age of 93.

~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide