Stuart Craig, an Oscar-winning production designer and art director known for his work on the blockbuster Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films as well as Gandhi, Dangerous Liaisons and Notting Hill, died on Sunday. He was 83.
Craig died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, fellow production designer and art director Neil Lamont shared on the British Film Designers Guild’s Facebook page.
“A true gentleman, with grace, kindness and humility,” Lamont wrote in a tribute. “Stuart was very generous with his time and advice, always taking the time to share his knowledge and support those around him. … I bet that anyone you ask, ‘which designer would you like to work with the most’ the answer 100 [percent] would be Stuart Craig, and anyone who met him will remember their encounter forever.”
Born on April 14, 1942, in Norfolk, England, Craig started working as a set designer in the film industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He later scored his first role as a production designer on the 1980 sci-fi thriller Saturn 3, starring Farrah Fawcett and Kirk Douglas.
The following year, he earned his first Oscar nomination for 1980’s The Elephant Man. Then in 1983, Craig took home his first Academy Award for his set design work on the 1982 biographical drama Gandhi, starring Ben Kingsley as the famous spiritual and political leader.
In addition to several more Oscar nominations throughout his career (including for the Harry Potter movies), he received two more Academy Award wins for 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons, starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer, and 1996’s The English Patient, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
Craig was also the creative mind who brought the magical worlds of the record-breaking Harry Potter film franchise to life through his sets. He worked on 2001’s Sorcerer’s Stone, 2002’s Chamber of Secrets, 2004’s Prisoner of Azkaban, 2005’s Goblet of Fire, 2007’s Order of the Phoenix, 2009’s Half-Blood Prince, 2010’s Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and 2011’s Deathly Hallows: Part 2. He also served as the production designer for the three Fantastic Beasts spinoff movies, including 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, 2018’s The Crimes of Grindelwald and 2022’s The Secrets of Dumbledore.
His other film credits include Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, Cal, The Mission, Cry Freedom, Chaplin, The Secret Garden, Shadowlands, Mary Reilly, In Love and War, The Avengers, Notting Hill, Gambit and The Legend of Tarzan, among others.
Craig is survived by his wife, Patricia Stangroom, and their two children.