Stephen B. Grimes

Stephen B. Grimes (18 April 1927 – 12 September 1988) was an English production designer and art director. He won an Oscar and was nominated for two more in the category Best Art Direction.Starting work in the British film industry after the Second World War as a sketch-artist, from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s Grimes worked almost exclusively with John Huston, a collaboration that resulted in 14 films in over 30 years. Grimes also had a fruitful long-term working relationship with Sydney Pollack, making seven films with him, and he was also employed by directors such as David Lean, Peter Yates, Mark Rydell and Ulu Grosbard.

One of his great strengths as a production designer was his skill as an artist: in researching and preparing a film he would produce many beautiful, dramatic and atmospheric sketches. These would help the director, director of photography and other key personnel to create the visual style and look of a film. Grimes understood the importance of light, space and texture – he put more into his sketches than most art directors – and tended to make sketches as much as or more than take photographs. He was not lavish; he liked the challenge of getting a good visual look with essentials, combining observation and imagination. Grimes was conscientious with high standards, and poured himself into his work. Stephen B. Grimes was born in Weybridge, the second of seven children of Leslie and Nancy Grimes. Leslie was an artist and cartoonist. Three of his brothers, Michael, Bruce and Colin, also worked in the British film and TV industry as art directors or assistant art directors. Colin Grimes sometimes assisted Stephen.

Grimes grew up in Haslemere, Surrey, Peldon in Essex, and Lansdowne Road, Notting Hill Gate, London. He went to St Martin's School of Art in the late 1940s, where he met and then married Kathleen Grimes (née Sanders). They had five children. Grimes was in the British Army at the tail-end of the Second World War.

After a forty-year career in film, Grimes died in Italy in September 1988 while supplying preparatory work for Axel Corti's film The King's Whore.