Monday, February 25, 2008American art director and production designer Robert F. Boyle was honoured last night at the Academy Awards.

Hired as an extra in films during the Great Depression, the young architect became a draftsman at Paramount Studios, moving on to become a sketch artist and assistant art director, before becoming a full-fledged art director in the early 1940s, at Universal Studios.

His credits include Alfred Hitchcock films Saboteur (1942), North by Northwest (1959), and The Birds (1963). Other films to his credit include The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Gaily, Gaily (1969), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and The Shootist (1976).

The Oscar-nominated documentary short The Man on Lincoln’s Nose (2000) chronicles his career, which includes the 1997 Art Directors Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award and four Oscar nominations.