Barbara Ling, the production designer known for her work on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Michael, has died at 73.
Ling died Thursday in Santa Barbara after a battle with cancer.
“Equally gifted with period authenticity, contemporary realism and stylized fantasy, Ling leaves behind a legacy that has deeply influenced the art of production and the visual language of modern filmmaking,” her family said in a statement.
Ling won the Academy Award for Best Production Design (shared with set designer Nancy Hay) for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019). She also received a Critics’ Choice Award and an Art Directors Guild Award for the Quentin Tarantino film, as well as BAFTA and Satellite Award nominations.
Starting out designing sets and lighting for theater, musical and opera productions, Ling began her career in Hollywood in 1981 as a lighting designer for the comedy special The Pee-wee Herman Show. She then got a job as production designer on True Stories (1986).
Ling’s other notable design credits include Oliver Stone’s The Doors and Jon Avnet’s Fried Green Tomatoes (both 1991), The Fall (1993), Batman Forever (1995), Batman & Robin (1997), Hearts in Atlantis (2001), No Reservations (2007), and The Lucky Ones. Alone (2012), Fallen (2016) and many others.
Ling most recently worked on A Man Called Otto (2022), starring Tom Hanks, and the biopic Michael (2026), directed by Antoine Fuqua.
She is survived by her wife Lindsay and sons Clay and Will.
The post Barbara Ling, ‘Michael’ and ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Production Designer, Dies at 73 appeared first on TheWrap.