Spains Gil Parrondo, an Academy Award winning art director for “Patton” and “Nicholas and Alexandra”, is no more. He was 95.
Parrando breathed his last on December 23.
“He had no other illness than his age,” his nephew Oscar Parrondo, told Spanish news agency Efe.
Parrondo’s two Oscars were the largest recognition for a generation of Spaniards who made their way to hold key crew positions as Hollywood’s big budget productions came to Spain to use its scenery and competitive prices.
Born in Luarca in Spain’s northern Asturias on June 17, 1921, Parrondo’s big break came relatively early. He scored his first job on 1939’s “Los cuatro Robinsones”, assisting set decorator Sigfrido Burmann with whom he worked for a decade.
Parrondo worked for the first time as art director in 1951 on Antonio del Amo’s “Dia tras DÃa”, and then headed set decoration on Orson Welles’ 1955 “Confidential Report”.
His two Oscars were won with director Franklin Schaffner. He bagged a further nomination for “Travels With my Aunt”, directed by George Cukor.
