Sir Ken Adam | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Adam in 2012 | |
| Born | Klaus Hugo George Fritz Adam (1921-02-05)5 February 1921 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 10 March 2016(2016-03-10) (aged 95) Knightsbridge,London, England |
| Education | St Paul's School, London |
| Alma mater | University College London |
| Years active | 1940–2003 |
| Known for | Royal Air Forcepilot,production designer |
| Spouse | |
| Relatives | Denis Adam (brother) |
| Awards | BAFTA forDr. Strangelove(1964) BAFTA forThe IPCRESS File(1965) Academy Award forBarry Lyndon(1975) Academy Award forThe Madness of King George(1994) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  Royal Air Force |
| Service years | 1941–1947 |
| Rank | Flight lieutenant |
| Service number | 187137 |
| Unit | No. 609 Squadron |
| Conflicts | World War II |
| Signature | |
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Sir Kenneth AdamOBE RDI (bornKlaus Hugo George Fritz Adam; 5 February 1921 – 10 March 2016) was aGerman-British movieproduction designer, best known for his set designs for theJames Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as forDr. Strangelove andSalon Kitty.
Adam won twoAcademy Awards forBest Art Direction. Born in Berlin, he relocated to England with his Jewish family at the age of 13 soon after theNazis came to power. Together with his younger brother,Denis Adam, he was one of only three German-born pilots to serve in theRoyal Air Force during the Second World War.
Adam was born in 1921 inBerlin to an upper-middle-class secular Jewish family, the third child of Lilli (née Saalfeld) and Fritz Adam, a formerPrussiancavalry officer who had served with theZieten Hussars.[1] Fritz had been awarded theIron Cross Second Class and the Iron Cross First Class for his service in theFirst World War.[2]
Fritz co-owned a well-known high-fashion clothing and sporting goods store called S. Adam (Berlin, Leipziger Straße/Friedrichstraße) together with his three brothers, George,[dubious –discuss] Siegfried and Otto Adam.[3][4]The company had been established in 1863 by Saul Adam. Klaus (Ken) had two older siblings, Peter, Loni and a younger brotherDieter (1 February 1924 – 17 October 2018).[5][6]
The family lived an almost idyllic, privileged existence until theNazi Party came to power.[3]
His older brother Peter was good friends withGottfried Reinhardt the son of theatre and film directorMax Reinhardt and they would often take the young Klaus out with them. As a result, he got to know Max Reinhardt and many other people in the German theatre. Gottfried Reinhardt later became a film director and producer.
The combination of his brother Dieter at the age of nine having a fight with a playground bully wearing aHitler Youth uniform and the increasing discrimination against Jews convinced their parents to send Klaus and Dieter to Craigend Park boarding school inEdinburgh.[7] Upon arrival Klaus anglicised his name to Kenneth and eventually Ken while his brother Dieter changed his to Denis. Their oldest brother Peter was at the time studying law at theUniversity of Clermont-Ferrand in France and decided to move to England and complete his studies there.
The rest of the family stayed in Germany, as Adam's father felt that the Nazis were only a temporary aberration and they could wait it out. Things, however, continued to deteriorate, with Jewish stores being boycotted and targeted for attacks in April 1933.
In the summer of 1933, Max Reich, a senior employee of the family business, and then Fritz Adam were arrested. Reich was a member of the SS and leader of the business's Nazi cell. Reich was eventually released, and Fritz Adam was released and put under house arrest for three days.[4] Inquiries determined that a former employee who had been dismissed for dishonesty had accused the two men of unfair dismissal and conspiring to maintain undeclared funds in Switzerland. It took two weeks to disprove both allegations, and no charges were laid against either man.[8]Reluctantly coming to the conclusion that Jews had no future in Germany, Fritz, Lilli and Loni, as well as some of Ken's aunts and uncles, fled to England in the summer of 1934.[9] The family eventually settled in theHampstead area of London the following year.
The family were declared refugees on their arrival to England and identified as "friendly aliens", with the exception of Denis who was too young to be classified. The family arrived in England with nothing other than some gold coins Lilli had smuggled out.[10] His mother, who had never previously worked in her life, used the little money they had to establish and run a boarding house. His father struggled with his change in status and starting over in a new country. His father started an import-export business selling gloves, but his health deteriorated and he died in 1936 when he was 56 years old.[4]
Adam left the boarding school in Edinburgh to rejoin his parents in London and continued his education atSt. Paul's School in London. At his mother's boarding house, Adam became increasingly interested in cinema after coming into contact with a number of artists among the Jewish refugees who were boarding there. He was introduced toVincent Korda, a Hungarian art director, when he was working onKnight Without Armour atDenham Film Studios. Korda not only nurtured Adam's passion for films, but encouraged him to train as an architect if he was interested in becoming a production designer.[1] Leaving school he became an apprentice at the firm of CW Glover & Partners (which specialized in making bomb shelters) and he signed up for evening classes at theBartlett School of Architecture atUniversity College London.[11][failed verification] Among his tutors was a part-time teacher, who had been an assistant of famed German architectErich Mendelsohn, from whom Adam learned valuable architectural drawing techniques.[1]
When World War II began, Adam was working on designs for air-raid shelters and illustrated books on air-raid protection and gas masks. As German citizens, the Adam family could have been interned as enemy aliens, but in October 1940 Adam was able to join thePioneer Corps, a support unit of the British Army open to citizens ofAxis countries resident in the UK and other Commonwealth countries, provided they were not considered a risk to security. Adam was seconded to designbomb shelters.
After eight months service in the Pioneer Corps, Adam's application to join theRoyal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a pilot was accepted. After initial flight training onde Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes in Scotland, he was sent to Canada and the United States for additional training. Among his instructors was the British actorMichael Rennie.
Flight Lieutenant Adam joinedNo. 609 Squadron atRAF Lympne on 1 October 1943.[12][13] He was nicknamed "Heinie the tank-buster" by his comrades for his daring exploits.[14] The squadron flew theHawker Typhoon, initially in support ofUnited States Army Air Forces long-range bombing missions over Europe.[13] Later they were employed in support of ground troops, including at the battle of theFalaise Gap, inNormandy afterD-Day. In 1944, his brother Denis joinedNo. 183 Squadron, joining Adam in No. 123 Wing. There were four squadrons in the wing: 164, 183, 198 and 609.[15]
Together with his brother Denis, Adam was one of three German-born pilots to serve in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War,[14] the third beingPeter Stevens.[16] As such, if they had been captured by the Germans, they were liable to be executed as traitors rather than being treated asprisoners of war.[17]
Following the end of the war, Adam was the Allied officer in charge of German labour rebuildingWunstorf Air Base.[1] Adam became naturalised as a British subject on 27 December 1946 and left the RAF upon his demobilisation in 1947.[18][19]
Adam entered the film industry as adraughtsman onThis Was a Woman (1948) at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.[1] Working forart directorPaul Sheriff on theBurt Lancaster filmThe Crimson Pirate (1952), Adam designed an 18th-century hot-air balloon, a flame-throwing tank, and a rowing boat that transformed into a submarine.[1] His first major screen credit was as production designer on the British thrillerSoho Incident (1956). He worked (uncredited) on the epicsAround the World in 80 Days (also 1956) andBen-Hur (1959). In 1956, he assisted art directorEdward Carrere with the sets forHelen of Troy.[1]
His first major credit was for the horror filmNight of the Demon (1957), directed byJacques Tourneur, and he was also the production designer on several films directed byRobert Aldrich.The first public knowledge of his expertise came when he won an award for the sets ofThe Trials of Oscar Wilde at the Moscow Film Festival in 1960.[1]
He was hired for the first James Bond film,Dr. No (1962). Adam did not work on the second James Bond film,From Russia with Love (1963), because he was working onStanley Kubrick'sDr. Strangelove (1964). His work on this film was described by theBritish Film Institute (BFI) as "gleaming and sinister".[5][20]Steven Spielberg even called it "the best set that's ever been designed".[21] He turned down the opportunity to work on Kubrick's next project,2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), after he found out that Kubrick had been working withNASA for a year on space exploration, and that it would put him at a disadvantage in developing his art.[5]
Adam made his name with his innovative, semi-futuristic sets for furtherJames Bond films, such asGoldfinger (1964),Thunderball (1965),You Only Live Twice (1967), andDiamonds Are Forever (1971). Thesupertanker set forThe Spy Who Loved Me (1977) was constructed in the largest soundstage in the world at the time. Adam claims it was lit byStanley Kubrick in secret.[22] His last Bond film wasMoonraker (1979). Writing forThe Guardian in 2005, journalist Johnny Dee claimed: "His sets for the seven Bond films he worked on [...] are as iconic as the movies themselves and set the benchmark for every blockbuster".[23]
Adam's other film credits includeThe Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), theMichael Caine espionage thrillerThe Ipcress File (1965) and its sequelFuneral in Berlin (1966), thePeter O'Toole version ofGoodbye, Mr. Chips (1969),Sleuth (1972),Salon Kitty (1976),Agnes of God (1985),Addams Family Values (1993), andThe Madness of King George (1994).[20][24] He was also a visual consultant on the film version ofPennies from Heaven (1981), adapted fromDennis Potter's television serial.[24]
Adam returned to work with Kubrick onBarry Lyndon (1975), for which he won his firstOscar. The BFI noted the film's "contrastingly mellow Technicolor beauties" in its depiction of the 18th century.[20][25] He also designed the famous car for the filmChitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), which was produced by the same team as the James Bond film series.[25] During the late 1970s, he worked on storyboards and concept art forStar Trek: Planet of the Titans, then in pre-production. The film was eventually shelved byParamount Pictures.[26]
Adam was a jury member at the1980 Cannes Film Festival and the49th Berlin International Film Festival.[27] In 1999, during theVictoria and Albert Museum exhibition "Ken Adam – Designing theCold War", Adam spoke on his role in the design of film sets associated with the 1960s through the 1980s.[5]
Adam died on 10 March 2016 at his home in London, following a short illness. He was 95 years old.[28]
He met his wife Maria-Letizia Moauro while filmingThe Crimson Pirate on location on the Italian island ofIschia and they married on 16 August 1952.[1][5]
In September 2012, Adam handed over his entire body of work to theDeutsche Kinemathek. The Ken Adam collection comprises approximately 4,000 sketches for films from all periods, photo albums to individual films,storyboards of his employees, memorabilia, military medals, and identity documents, as well as all cinematic awards, including Adam's twoAcademy Awards.[29][30]
The Ken Adam Building, a large lot atPinewood Studios's Buckingham location, bears Adam's name and houses multiple theatres and businesses as well as theKodak Film Lab and an office of the trade unionBectu.
Adam was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire in the1996 New Year Honours for services to the film industry andKnight Bachelor in the2003 Birthday Honours for services to film production design and to UK–German relations.[31][32] Adam was appointed aRoyal Designer for Industry in 2009.[33]
