Education
Lyle Wheeler studied at the University of Southern California, then worked as a magazine artist and industrial designer.
Lyle Wheeler studied at the University of Southern California, then worked as a magazine artist and industrial designer.
In 1936 he was hired by David O. Selznick to work as a set designer for Selznick"s motion picture production company. Wheeler proved to be a creative genius when it came to designing quality sets at reasonable costs and was very much in demand in the industry. By the end of World World War II, Wheeler had joined Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, where he remained as chief art director until the end of the 1950s.
In a career spanning 40 years, Wheeler created sets for more than 350 motion pictures, many of which are considered film classics.
His credits include A Star is Born, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, State Fair, The Dolly Sisters, Forever Amber, The Fan, The Pride of Saint Louis, The Seven Year Itch, and Carousel and in particular, Gone With the Wind, for which he drew some of the earliest examples of storyboards for film, illustrating not only the art design, but the framing, composition and even the color for nearly every shot in the film, greatly influencing the production. He also created matte paintings for all the ceilings for the sets as well as large set pieces like the facade of Tara.
In 1951, he was nominated for four different films, three in 1952 and twice for two films in one year. His television credits include the long-running Columbia Broadcasting System series, Perry Mason.
Late in life, Wheeler suffered financial reverses and was forced to sell his home.
His 1959 Oscar for The Diary of Anne Frank was purchased and returned to Wheeler in 1989 by a fan. Lyle Wheeler died January 10, 1990, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, of pneumonia.
The art direction of Lyle Wheeler was often recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 1939: Gone with the Wind 1946: Anna and the King of Siam 1953: The Robe 1956: The King and I 1959: The Diary of Anne Frank 1937: The Prisoner of Zenda 1938: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1940: Rebecca 1944: Laura 1945: Leave Her to Heaven 1947: The Foxes of Harrow 1949: Come to the Stable 1950: All About Eve 1951: Fourteen Hours, House on Telegraph Hill, David and Bathsheba, On the Riviera 1952: My Cousin Rachel, Viva Zapata!, The Snows of Kilimanjaro 1953: The President"s Lady, Titanic 1954: Desirée 1955: Daddy Long Legs, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing 1956: Teenage Rebel 1958: A Certain Smile 1959: Journey to the Center of the Earth 1963: The Cardinal.
