When the Eon team were looking for a man to create the massive, stunning lairs for some of their most iconic villains, they knew who to call: genius production designer Ken Adam. The man who worked on the Bond movies and so much more has died at the age of 95.
Adam is one of those few people whose life can truly be said to have been even more eventful than the stories he helped bring to the screen. Born Klaus Hugo Adam in Berlin in 1922, he and his family lived well in Germany until his father was arrested and briefly detained by the ascendant Nazi government simply for being a Jewish business owner. Fleeing to London, the family opened a boarding house and Adam's interest in art and talent for illustrating flourished. Contact with refugee filmmakers helped spur a love of cinema and a passion for studying architecture. Before he could truly fulfill his artistic side, however, Adam signed up to fight in World War II, joining first the Pioneer Corps, a unit designed for German nationals fighting for a suspicious British government, and then won a transfer to the RAF, where he became one of only two Germans in the force and flew with 609 Squadron.
After leaving military service in 1947, he got his first job in film at Twickenham Studios, working in the art department of projects such as Captain Horatio Hornblower, The Crimson Pirate, and The Master Of Ballantrae. But he longed to work on something other than naval films, and produced designs for Ben Hur and Around The World In 80 Days, the latter of which earned him his first Oscar nomination.
In 1962, he became the production designer on Dr. No, kicking off a long and fruitful working relationship with the Bond team that would include Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.
His other famous partnership was with Stanley Kubrick, with whom he worked on Dr. Strangelove and Barry Lyndon. Though they formed a close bond, his time working with Kubrick was fractious, and he swore never to do so again after that first experience. Kubrick hired someone else to work on Barry Lyndon, but after that designer walked out three weeks later, he begged Adam to step in. The resulting rows sent Adam to the hospital with a nervous breakdown, buy he earned his first Oscar for the film's beautiful sets.
Elsewhere in his diverse career, Adam worked on the production design for the likes of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Madness Of King George (which won him his second Oscar) and The Out-Of-Towners. He was awarded a knighthood in 2003, the first production designer to win such an accolade. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Maria Letizia.