Emmy-Winning Art Director James J Murakami on dies at 91
James J Murakami died on 15 December at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles, his wife confirmed. He was 91.
Murakami was an admired art director, production designer and set designer who earned an Emmy for Deadwood and an Oscar nomination for Changeling, one of the dozen films he worked on for director Clint Eastwood.
He served as an assistant art director for production designer Dean Tavoularis and director Francis Ford Coppola on The Godfather Part II (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), One From the Heart (1981) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).
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He then partnered with production designer-art director Henry Bumstead on the Eastwood-helmed Unforgiven (1992), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) and Letters From Iwo Jima (2006).
After Bumstead's death, Murakami handled production designer duties on Eastwood's Gran Torino (2008), Changeling (2008), Invictus (2009), Hereafter (2010), J. Edgar (2011), Trouble With the Curve (2012), Jersey Boys (2014), American Sniper (2014) and Sully (2016).
Murakami received a pair of Emmy nominations for his work on HBO's Deadwood, winning in 2005.
His impressive body of work also included The Escape Artist (1982), WarGames (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), *batteries not included (1987), Midnight Run (1988), Rising Sun (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), I Love Trouble (1994), The Postman (1997) and The Scorpion King (2002).
In 2016 he retired after working on Sully and two years later received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Directors Guild.
