Carl Jules Weyl (6 December 1890 – 12 July 1948) was a German

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

. He won an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

in the category

Best Art Direction The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted fro ...

for the film ''

The Adventures of Robin Hood ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 American Technicolor swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de H ...

''. He was also nominated in the same category for the film ''

Mission to Moscow ''Mission to Moscow'' is a 1943 film directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the 1941 book by the former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph E. Davies. The movie chronicles the experiences of the second American ambassador to the Soviet ...

''.

Early life and education

Weyl was born in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. His father, Karl Friedrich Weyl, was an architect and field engineer of the

Gotthard Rail Tunnel , it, Galleria del San Gottardo , other_name = , line = Gotthard Line , location = Traversing the Saint-Gotthard Massif in the middle of the Swiss Alps , coordinates = , os_grid_ref = , status = , system ...

through the Alps. Carl Jules Weyl studied at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

in Paris after architectural training in Berlin, Strasbourg, and Munich. He served as a first lieutenant of infantry in the German

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...

, according to his World War I draft registration card.

Architect and art director

Weyl immigrated to the US on 31 March 1912, according to his 1933 petition for citizenship, on the

SS Königin Luise (1896) SS ''Königin Luise'' ("Queen Louise") was a built in 1896 by Vulcan Shipbuilding Corp. of Stettin, Germany, for the North German Lloyd line of Bremen. She served on the company's Australian, Far East, and North Atlantic routes for nearly tw ...

. He worked as an architect in California, first in San Francisco for the architect John W. Reid, Jr., a designer of the

San Francisco Civic Center The Civic Center in San Francisco, California, is an area located a few blocks north of the intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue that contains many of the city's largest government and cultural institutions. It has two large plazas ( ...

and many schools. Weyl moved to Los Angeles in 1923, where he designed the

Brown Derby Brown Derby was a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, California. The first and best known was shaped like a derby hat, an iconic image that became synonymous with the Golden Age of Hollywood. It was opened by Wilson Mizner in 1926. The chain ...

Restaurant #2, the Hollywood Playhouse, the Gaylord Apartments, as well as many other buildings and Hollywood estates. Weyl was best man at the Beverly Hills wedding of film comedian

Harry Langdon Harry Philmore Langdon (June 15, 1884 – December 22, 1944) was an American comedian who appeared in vaudeville, silent films (where he had his greatest fame), and talkies.Obituary ''Variety'', December 27, 1944, page 39. Life and career Bor ...

in 1929. When the Depression hit and building commissions dried up, Weyl joined

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

Productions, then

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

as an art director. Weyl initially worked as an assistant to

Anton Grot Anton Grot (18 January 1884 – 21 March 1974) was a Polish art director long active in Hollywood. He was known for his prolific output with Warner Brothers, contributing, in such films as '' Little Caesar'' (1931), and ''Gold Diggers of 19 ...

and

Robert M. Haas Robert M. Haas (January 3, 1889 – December 17, 1962) was an American art director. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Academy Award for Best Production Design, Best Art Direction. He worked on over 120 films between 19 ...

. His first set for Warner Bros was the fountain in

Footlight Parade ''Footlight Parade'' is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell and featuring Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert and Ruth Donnelly. The film was written by Manuel Seff and Ja ...

Death

Weyl died in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He is interred in

Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original and current flagship location of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries, a chain of six cemeteries and four additional mortuaries in Southern Cal ...

.Carl Jules Weyl on findagrave.com
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Selected filmography

* ''

The Florentine Dagger ''The Florentine Dagger '' is a 1935 American film noir mystery film directed by Robert Florey. The film numbers among the first Hollywood movies in which psychoanalysis is a significant factor in the story.Smith, Richard Harland"The Florentin ...

'' (1935) * ''

Bullets or Ballots ''Bullets or Ballots'' is a 1936 American gangster film starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, and Humphrey Bogart. Robinson plays a police detective who infiltrates a crime gang. This is the first of several films featu ...

'' (1936) * ''

Kid Galahad ''Kid Galahad'' is a 1962 American musical film starring Elvis Presley as a boxer. It was released by United Artists in August 1962 and opened at #9 at the American box office. ''Variety'' ranked it #37 on its list of the top-grossing films of 1 ...

'' (1937) * ''

'' (1938) * ''

Confessions of a Nazi Spy ''Confessions of a Nazi Spy'' is a 1939 American spy political thriller film directed by Anatole Litvak for Warner Bros. It was the first explicitly anti-Nazi film to be produced by a major Hollywood studio, being released in May 1939, several m ...

'' (1939) * '' The Letter'' (1940) * ''

The Great Lie ''The Great Lie'' is a 1941 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding, and starring Bette Davis, George Brent and Mary Astor. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee is based on the novel ''January Heights'' by Polan Banks. Plot When concert p ...

'' (1941) * ''

Kings Row ''Kings Row'' is a 1942 film starring Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan and Betty Field that tells a story of young people growing up in a small American town at the turn of the twentieth century. The picture was directed by Sam Wood. ...

'' (1942) * ''

Yankee Doodle Dandy ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' is a 1942 American biographical musical film about George M. Cohan, known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway". It stars James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf, and features Irene Manning, George Tobias, Ro ...

'' (1942) * ''

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

'' (1942) * ''

'' (1943) * ''

Passage to Marseille ''Passage to Marseille'', also known as ''Message to Marseille'', is a 1944 American war film made by Warner Brothers, directed by Michael Curtiz. The screenplay was by Casey Robinson and Jack Moffitt from the novel ''Sans Patrie'' (''Men Without ...

'' (1944) * ''

The Corn Is Green ''The Corn Is Green'' is a 1938 semi-autobiographical play by Welsh dramatist and actor Emlyn Williams. The play premiered in London at the Duchess Theatre in September 1938; with Sybil Thorndike as Miss Moffat and Williams himself portraying Mo ...

'' (1945) * ''

The Big Sleep ''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, The Big Sleep (1946 film), in 1946 and again The Big Sleep ...

'' (1946) * '' Escape Me Never'' (1947)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weyl, Carl Jules 1890 births 1948 deaths German art directors Best Art Direction Academy Award winners Architects from Stuttgart Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) German emigrants to the United States