Lyle R. Wheeler

Lyle Reynolds Wheeler, (b. February 2, 1905 in Woburn, Massachusetts, USA. d. January 10, 1990 in Woodland Hills, California, USA), was an Academy Award-winning American motion picture art director.

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.

In a career spanning forty years, Wheeler created sets for more than three hundred and fifty 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 St. Louis", "The Seven Year Itch", and "Carousel". He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction twenty-nine times, winning five. In 1951, he was nominated for four different films, three in 1952 and twice for two films in one year.

On his passing in 1990, Wheeler was cremated, and his ashes stored in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles. His Oscar statuettes were unknowingly bought by the purchaser of a sealed carton at a storage facility default sale months before his death.

Academy Awards

Wins

#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"

Nominations

#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"