Peter Stetzenko
Peter Stetzenko Bio Stetzenko, Deanna. 2023. Interview with Karen L. Maness, Castle Green, Pasadena, CA.
Bill Anderson
Bill Anderson Bio Anderson, Bill (scenic artist). 2013, 2018. Interview with Karen L. Maness for the Art Directors Guild Oral History Project, July.
Leo Atkinson
Leo Atkinson was one of the three artists with whom George Gibson built the foundation of his MGM Scenic Art Department, alongside Chicago-trained scenic artists Art Rider and William J. Smart. Originally a decorator, Atkinson grew active in scenic art in the late 1920s and became MGM’s first expert in More »
Gordon Butcher
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Gordon Butcher’s family moved to Boston after the catastrophic Halifax explosion in 1917. He found work at Sears, working displays at stores across New England. A transfer to open a Glendale, California store brought him in contact with studio people. He then moved to Culver More »
Ben Carré
Born in Paris, Ben Carré began his first career designing and painting backdrops and sets for theatre and then for film, in Paris, then in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and finally in Hollywood. Carré is considered the first true visual artist of American cinema. As an art director, he was More »
John Gary Coakley
Like his father, John H. Coakley, John Gary was an artist and businessman. Gary learned scenic art primarily on the job, working with his father, then Scenic Art Supervisor at 20th Century Fox, in the facilities after hours and on weekends in his early teens. In high school, he helped More »
John Harold Coakley
Coakley came from a family of artists and studied at Chouinard Art Institute. One of George Gibson’s youngest MGM apprentices, Coakley, worked at MGM from 1936 until 1953 and became one of Hollywood’s most influential scenic artists. Coakley departed MGM to lead 20th Century Fox’s Scenic Art Studio at the More »
Michael Denering
Michael Denering is one of the film industry’s leading Journeymen Scenic Artists. A member of the Scenic Artists’ Union since 1978 and working over forty years in the motion picture industry painting murals and backdrops for Oscar-winning and nominated films, his impressive resume has well over 100 feature films to More »