John Allan Hyatt BoxOBE (27 January 1920 – 7 March 2005) was a British filmproduction designer andart director. He won theAcademy Award for Best Art Direction on four occasions and won the equivalentBAFTA three times, a record for both awards. Throughout his career he gained a reputation for recreating exotic locations in rather more mundane surroundings; he once created a walled Chinese city inSnowdonia.[1]
Box was born in London, and attendedHighgate School from 1934 to 1938.[2] Due to his father's job as a civil engineer, he spent much of his childhood inSri Lanka, then the British colony of Ceylon. After studying architecture atNorth London Polytechnic. He served with theBritish Army duringWorld War II, beingcommissioned into the Hampshire Regiment (later theRoyal Hampshire Regiment) on 21 December 1940,[3] but then transferred to theRoyal Armoured Corps (RAC) on 1 June 1942.[3]
After the war Box served his apprenticeship an assistant to the art directorCarmen Dillon, herself anOscar winner. During this period he worked with her onAnthony Asquith's adaptation ofThe Browning Version (1951) andThe Importance of Being Earnest (1952).[4]
Box's first films as an art director were low budget affairs, the first being the science fictionB-movieThe Gamma People (1956). His first big break came when directorMark Robson asked him to work on theperiod filmThe Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1957), which starredIngrid Bergman. After this Box worked onCarol Reed's adaptation ofGraham Greene's novelOur Man in Havana (1959) andRichard Quine'sThe World of Suzie Wong (1960).
As production designer ofLawrence of Arabia (1962), he first worked for the British directorDavid Lean, as well as winning his first Oscar. Box got the job working on this film afterJohn Bryan fell ill. Box designedOf Human Bondage (1964) and worked with Lean again on the adaptation ofDoctor Zhivago (1965), for which he again won an Oscar for his set designs.
The following year Box won his first BAFTA award for his reproduction ofTudor England inFred Zinnemann's version ofA Man for All Seasons (1966). In his next production he recreatedVictorian era London for themusicalOliver! (1968). He won an Oscar forOliver!, a feat he repeated in his next film three years later,Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), which provided Box with his final Academy Award for his detailed reproduction of pre-revolution Russia.
In 1972, Box worked onTravels with My Aunt, for which he received another Oscar nomination. He won a BAFTA or his role onJack Clayton's version ofThe Great Gatsby (1974), and won the award again the following year forRollerball.
Box's next two projects were 1977'sSorcerer (1977) andThe Keep (1983), both of which were expensive and unsuccessful. He reunited with David Lean for the filmA Passage to India (1984), for which Box received Oscar and BAFTA nominations. He retired after this film, but returned in the mid-90s to work on an adaptation ofBlack Beauty, as well asFirst Knight, his first foray into computer assisted set design and his final film.
He was awarded the OBE in 1998.[citation needed]
