Michael Ford
Set decorator known as ‘the Flower Arranger’ who won Oscars for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Titanic
MICHAEL FORD, who has died aged 89, was an Oscarwinning set decorator, a member of the back-room army which lends authenticity to feature films.
The set decorator is responsible for selecting, designing, and sourcing the “set dressing” elements of film or television productions to help establish the tone and period of the film.
These elements might include, for example, interior lighting, art, furniture, drapery, floor coverings, knick knacks, and exterior furnishings such as streetlamps, traffic lights and sculptures. Among other things the role requires careful research into the social milieu depicted and knowledge of period detail.
In his book Production Design and the History Film (2004), CS Tashiro wrote: “A rule of thumb production designers and set decorators must follow is the Law Against Anachronism. This law states that ‘filmmakers should include no objects that could not have appeared in the time period of the story because they were invented later. Any period will have legacies of the times before it in addition to those specific to itself ’.”
Known affectionately to film industry colleagues as “the Flower Arranger”, Michael Dickins Ford was born on June 11 1928 and studied Book Illustration at Goldsmith’s College, London under Betty “Ada” Swanwick. He worked as a scenic artist before “drifting into” the British film industry via commercial television, where he worked on such series as The New Avengers.
His first film credit was as an assistant art director on Man in the Moon (1960, starring Kenneth More and Shirley Anne Field). Other projects included The Anniversary (1968), with Bette Davis, Kelly’s Heroes (1970), the 1972 Up Pompeii spin-off Up the Front and The Alf Garnett Saga (1972, starring Warren Mitchell and Dandy Nichols).
In 1980 he was appointed as set decorator on Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, filmed at Elstree Studios, and he went on to work on many more features, signing off in 1999 after the sci-fi adventure Wing Commander.
He received an Oscar nomination in 1981 for his work on The Empire Strikes Back, before sharing the award for Best Art Direction, with Norman Reynolds and Leslie Dilley, the following year for Raiders Of The Lost Ark. He was again nominated for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, in 1984, and for Empire of the Sun in 1987. In 1998 he won his second Oscar, with the art director Peter Lamont, for their work on James Cameron’s Titanic.
Lamont and Ford were determined to recreate the interior rooms of the doomed ocean liner in precise detail. Harland and Wolff, Titanic’s builders, opened their private archives, containing photographs and plans, and their quest for authenticity was helped along by the hardiness of certain Titanic suppliers.
The Wellan Davit Company, which had provided the pulleys and mechanisms for lowering the ship’s lifeboats, built davits for the film from their old plans. Lamont and Ford also discovered that BMK Stoddard of England, which manufactured the original carpeting for the first-class dining saloon and reception room, was still in operation, that the pattern was on file, and that the dyes could be remixed. Thus, the carpet was reproduced, as were deck chairs, upholstery, table lamps, leaded windows, luggage, cutlery and crockery with the White Star Line crest, and life jackets.
To make doubly sure, James Cameron hired two historians of the Titanic, Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, to authenticate the historical detail in the film. Lynch would later say that, though he had studied the ship for most of his life, he was absolutely spellbound when he walked around the sets.
Peter Lamont has recalled that as the sets were assembled, the film’s producer expressed concerns about the costs of set decoration. “I said, ‘Don’t worry, Michael is one of the most frugal with a budget that I know’. Three months later I was talking budget again with the producer, and he said to me, ‘You were right about your Flower Arranger, he is the only HOD [head of department] who has done all we needed and still have budget left!’”
Ford collaborated with Peter Lamont on several other productions including the 1988 black comedy Consuming Passions and several James Bond films – The Living Daylights (1987); Licence To Kill (1989) and Goldeneye (1995).
Peter Lamont has described him as a “true gentleman” who “never blew a fuse at work”.
From his time as an art student, Ford always painted as a hobby, specialising in colourful, humorous work featuring humans and animals.
In 1954 Ford married Marilyn Rodgers, but the marriage was dissolved. He is survived by two sons.
Michael Ford, born June 11 1928, died May 31 2018