Roy Forge Smith (18 May 1929 – 6 February 2017) was a British production designer known for his work in films, such as ''

Monty Python and the Holy Grail ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) an ...

'', and television, including 44 episodes of the ''

Ghost Whisperer ''Ghost Whisperer'' is an American supernatural television series, which ran on CBS from September 23, 2005, to May 21, 2010. The series follows the life of Melinda Gordon ( Jennifer Love Hewitt), who has the ability to see and communicate with ...

'' from 2005 to 2007. Smith received two ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nominations for his work on the television movies ''

The Hunley ''The Hunley'' is a 1999 American historical drama television film written and directed by John Gray, from a story by Gray and John Fasano. The film stars Armand Assante, Donald Sutherland, Alex Jennings, Michael Dolan, and Christopher Baue ...

'' in 1998 and the 2002 CBS

biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...

, '' Martin and Lewis''. He frequently collaborated with writer and director, John Gray. Smith was a native of London. He began his career, which spanned more than 40 years in film and television, at the BBC. Smith was a set designer for the production of ''

''. His numerous British and American film credits as a production designer included work on ''

Far from the Madding Crowd ''Far from the Madding Crowd'' (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in ''Cornhill Magazine'', where it gained a wide readership. The novel is set in ...

'' (1967), '' Jabberwocky'' (1977), '' Mrs. Soffel'' (1984), ''

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'' (1989), '' Robin Hood: Men in Tights'' (1993), '' Dracula: Dead and Loving It'' (1995), and the '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' film trilogy during the early 1990s. During the 1990s Smith continued to work on feature films such as Richard's Treehouse, Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Katie turning to television in around 2000 designing sets in Ireland for a Hallmark film, in Lithuania for Attila the Hun and in Luxembourg. He often teamed with John Gray, the writer and director, to design the sets for his television films and series. Smith designed the sets for seven of Gray's television movies, including ''

'' (1998) (Charleston South Carolina) for which his ingenuity about the construction and the re-creation of the Hunley impressed historians; '' The Day Lincoln Was Shot'', in which he constructed a Civil War era

Richmond Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

White House in an historic building and a replica of the theatre in which he was shot and '' Martin and Lewis'' (2002). In 2005, Gray created the CBS series, ''

'', supernatural drama series starring

Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Love Hewitt (born February 21, 1979) is an American actress and singer. Hewitt began her career as a child actress and singer, appearing in national television commercials before joining the cast of the Disney Channel series ''Kids I ...

. Smith served as the production designer for 44 episodes from 2005 to 2007 during the show's first two seasons. Roy Forge Smith died on 6 February 2017, at the age of 87. His death was announced by Gray, who issued a tribute, saying, "Roy was the master of doing things simply...It's the biggest and most important thing I learned from him (among many many things); in the midst of complexity, look for the simplicity."

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* 1929 births 2017 deaths British film designers BBC people Film people from London British expatriates in the United States {{UK-film-bio-stub