Production Designer Robert F. Boyle Dies at 100

Oscar nominated designer was best known for his work on Alfred Hitchcock’s films

Production designer Robert Boyle, best known for his work with Alfred Hitchcock on “The Birds” and “North by Northwest,” died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 100.

Boyle was nominated for four Academy Awards for his work and received an honorary Oscar in 2008.

In a career that spanned four decades, Boyle worked with directors such as Don Siegel, Hal Ashby and Norman Jewison. Among his many film credits are such classics as “Fiddler On the Roof,” “The Shootist,” “In Cold Blood,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “Private Benjamin,” and the original “Cape Fear.”

But it was his work for Hitchcock that cemented Boyle’s film legacy. From the first of their collaborations, 1941’s “Saboteur” on which Boyle served as art director, to the three films that he served as production designer on “North by Northwest,” “The Birds,” and “Marnie,” the two created some of the seminal thrillers and horror films in cinema history.

Boyle’s work on “North By Northwest” was the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary, “The Man On Lincoln’s Nose” (2000) — a nod to the iconic chase scene on Mount Rushmore that closes the film.

Boyle is survived by two daughters: Emily Boyle-Biddle and Susan Licon, and three grandchildren.

His wife, Bess Taffel Boyle, died in 1999.

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