Oscar-winning (Gandhi, Dangerous Liaisons, The English Patient) British production designer Stuart Craig, 83, died on Sept. 7. Craig also designed seven Harry Potter films, as well as the Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios. Stuart’s other films included The Elephant Man, Gandhi, Chaplin, Notting Hill, and Fanstatic Beasts and Where to Find Them (I will be sorely disappointed if there is not a porn film called Fantastic Breasts and Where to Find Them). Craig told interviewer Cynthia Barlow Marrs, “I started as a fine artist, and wanted to be a painter. But very quickly I became interested in the theatre and design, and from there it was a very easy sideways step into film and film design.” He added, “That’s the difference between fine art and craft. A fine artist can go anywhere with a work of art, and it doesn’t matter where he or she ends up. I can’t do that. I am bound by the need to tell the story, to deliver what the writer expects, what the actors expect.”
