Ken Adam

Sir Kenneth Adam (born 5 February, 1921 as Klaus Hugo Adam) is a production designer most famous for his set designs for the early films in the James Bond series.

Life

Ken Adam was born in Berlin, Germany to a Jewish family. His family moved to England in 1934, when Adam was 13 years old, and then went to St. Paul's School in Barnes. Later, he attended University College London, training to be an architect. Although he was still a German national, he served as a pilot for the Royal Air Force during World War II, where he flew the Hawker Typhoon on many missions over NW Europe. This was a brave move: if he had been shot down and captured, instead of being sent to a prisoner of war camp, the Germans would have been able to hang him as a traitor. Adam was the only German national to be an RAF fighter pilot. He was later naturalised as a British citizen and was knighted in 2003 by Queen Elizabeth II.

Films

Adam first entered the film industry as a draughtsman for "This Was a Woman" (1948). He made his name with his innovative, semi-futuristic sets for the James Bond films such as "Dr. No" (1962), "Goldfinger" (1964), "Thunderball" (1965), "You Only Live Twice" (1967) and "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971). The supertanker set for "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) was the largest sound stage in the world at the time it was built. His last Bond film was "Moonraker" (1979).

He worked with Stanley Kubrick on "Dr. Strangelove" which centres around the impressive "war room" set, and on "Barry Lyndon", which won Adam an Oscar. He also designed the famous car for the film "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," which was also produced by the same team that was responsible for the James Bond film series. During the late 1970s he worked on storyboards and concept art for a new Star Trek film which was in pre-production. The film, known as "Planet of the Titans" was eventually shelved by Paramount Pictures.

Awards

*1964 - British Film Academy Award for "Dr. Strangelove"
*1965 - British Film Academy Award for "The IPCRESS File"

He was also BAFTA-nominated for "Goldfinger", "Thunderball", "You Only Live Twice", "Sleuth", "Barry Lyndon", "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "The Madness of King George".

*1975 - Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his recreation of 18th century England in "Barry Lyndon".
*1994 - Academy Award for Best Art Direction for work on "The Madness of King George".

He was also nominated for Academy Awards for "Around the World in Eighty Days", "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Addams Family Values".

He received the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

Further reading

* Christopher Frayling - "Ken Adam: The Art of Production Design" (2005) ISBN 0-571-22057-6

External links

*imdb name|id=0010553
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/529165/ Ken Adam biography and credits at BFI Screenonline]
* [http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/detail/celeb/186032 Hollywood.com]
* [http://www.berlinale-talentcampus.de/download/Ken_Adam.pdf Ken Adam interview (pdf)]
* [http://www.adam.de/ Adam.de] Official Homepage Family Adam
* [http://www.filmdesigners.co.uk/ British Film Designers Guild] Official site