Born May 9, 1896, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to Patience Day and architect Robert Scott, Richard Day developed a spinal curvature that prevented him from attending school and was instead home-schooled. He never graduated high school or pursued higher education.

Day was a Captain in the Canadian Army stationed in London during World War I where he met his future wife who was a nurse’s aide. They couple married in London in 1918. After the war, he returned to Canada and attempted a career as a commercial artist. In 1920, his father financed a trip to Hollywood in hopes that Day would find a job in the film industry. He was unsuccessful until a chance encounter with director Erich von Stroheim led von Stroheim to offer him work on 1922’s Foolish Wives. He subsequently worked as art director on all of von Stroheim’s silent films including those he made for MGM.

In 1929, Day left MGM to join Samuel Goldwyn where he served as Goldwyn’s principal art director throughout most of the 1930s. He was nominated for Oscars for 1930’s Whoopee! , 1931’s Arrowsmith and 1934’s The Affairs of Cellini before winning for 1935’s The Dark Angel and Dodsworth. He was nominated again for 1937’s Dead End, but surprisingly not for the same year’s Stella Dallas or The Hurricane, his first John Ford film. He was then nominated for 1938’s The Goldwyn Follies, his last for a Goldwyn film before moving Twentieth Century-Fox.

At Fox, Day’s films included Charlie Chan in Honolulu and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes before working again for Ford on the classics Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums Along the Mohawk, The Grapes of Wrath, and How Green Was My Valley for which he won his third Oscar on his tenth nomination. Sandwiched in-between the Ford films were the musicals, Lillian Russell and Down Argentine Way, for which he received his eighth and ninth nominations.

The same year as How Green Was My Valley won him the Oscar for Best Art Direction – Black and White, he was nominated for his color art direction for Blood and Sand. The following year he won his fourth and fifth Oscars, one for This Above All in black-and-white and one for My Gal Sal in color.

In the late 1940s, Day was nominated for the fourteenth and fifteenth times for The Razor’s Edge and Joan of Arc, but not The Ghost and Mrs. Muir or Miracle on 34th Street.

The 1950s brought Day his sixth and seventh Oscars for A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront as well as another nomination for Hans Christian Andersen. The 1960s brought him his nineteenth nomination for The Greatest Story Ever Told and the early 1970s, his twentieth and final nomination for Tora! Tora! Tora! .

Richard Day died on May 23, 1972 at the age of 76. His great-granddaughter is the actress AnnaCorey whose films include Blue Jasmine and Steve Jobs.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE HURRICANE (1937), directed by John Ford

Day’s art direction really stands out during this period without making itself the center of attention. He received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for 1934’s The Affairs of Cellini set in Renaissance Italy, with wins for 1935’s The Dark Angel set in World War I era Americana and 1936’s Dodsworth set in various European locales. Oddly, his 1937 nomination was for the New York slums of Dead End rather than for his dressing of the islands of the South Pacific before, during, and after they were destroyed by the killer hurricane of the title.

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1941), directed by John Ford

Day won his third Oscar for his terrific work in this recreation of a Welsh mining village with its houses, school, church, bridges, and of course, it’s coal mine. The house of the Morgans, the central family that began with five sons and a daughter, has only the youngest son still living with his parents as time goes on. The house has become so vivid in audience’s minds that when her young son tries to show his mother on a map where his siblings have gone, we know exactly what she means when she says “I don’t need a map to show me where my children are. I know where they are. They’re in the house.”

THE RAZOR’S EDGE (1946), directed by Edmund Goulding

There were 89 different sets built for this film which had the longest shooting schedule of any film at Fox to that date. Set in the post-World War I era, W. Somerset Maugham’s central character, played by Tyrone Power, travels the world from Chicago to the Himalayas to Paris and points in-between. Consequently, there are scenes set in Himalayan monk’s chambers, busy railway stations, fabulously upholstered apartments, and hospital wards, among many other places. Day’s equally memorable 1947 films, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Miracle on 34th Street must have seemed like a walk in the park in comparison.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951), directed by Elia Kazan

Day’s sets of New Orleans sets are about as evocative of any city as has ever been styled by an at director. That is noticeable from the opening scene in which Vivien Leigh’s Blanche DuBois is helped onto the streetcar of the title by a young man (Mickey Kuhn who played Melanie’s son at age 5 to Leigh’s Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind). It is also evident in the interiors of the Kowalski apartment where Leigh goes to stay with her sister (Kim Hunter) and brother-in-law (Marlon Brando). As the film progresses, the apartment gets smaller to heighten the suggestion of Leigh’s increasing claustrophobia.

THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (1965), directed by George Stevens

During filming, the first snowstorm to hit Arizona in decades buried the whole Jerusalem set. Several hundred cast and crew members, including director Stevens, went out with snow shovels, wheelbarrows, bulldozers, and butane flamethrowers to clear the set. Just as they were done, it snowed again, even harder than before. Production was forced to move back to Hollywood. Day was one of three credited art directors for the biblical epic. All three were nominated for Oscars for their participation, although it’s not clear who designed what. They lost to the art directors from Doctor Zhivago.

RICHARD DAY AND OSCAR

• Whoopee! (1930/31) – nominated – Best Art Direction
• Arrowsmith (1931/32) – nominated – Best Art Direction
• The Affairs of Cellini (1934) – nominated – Best Art Direction
• The Dark Angel (1935) – Oscar – Best Art Direction
• Dodsworth (1936) – Oscar – Best Art Direction
• Dead End (1937) – nominated – Best Art Direction
• The Goldwyn Follies (1938) – nominated – Best Art Direction
• Lillian Russell (1940) – nominated – Best Art Direction – Black and White
• Down Argentine Way (1940) – nominated – Best Art Direction – Color
• How Green Was My Valley (1941) – Oscar – Best Art Direction – Black and White
• Blood and Sand (1941) – nominated – Best Art Direction – Color
• This Above All (1942) – Oscar – Best Art Direction – Black and White
• My Gal Sal (1942) – Oscar – Best Art Direction – Color
• The Razor’s Edge (1946) – nominated – Best Art Direction – Black and White
• Joan of Arc (1948) – nominated – Best Art Direction – Black and White
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) – Oscar – Best Art Direction – Black and White
• Hans Christian Andersen (1952) – nominated – Best Art Direction – Color
• On the Waterfront (1954) – Oscar – Best Art Direction – Black and White
• The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) – nominated – Best Art Direction – Color
• Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) – nominated – Best Art Direction