Hollywood's Alexander Golitzen dies

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Academy Award-winning art director and production designer Alexander Golitzen has died in San Diego in his late 90s, it was reported Saturday.

Golitzen's family announced his July 26 death Friday, the New York Times said Saturday. The cause of death was not given and his exact age was unknown.

The Moscow native spent years as supervising art director at Universal Pictures and his credit appears on more than 300 movies. He had 14 Oscar nominations and shared three of them for the 1943 "Phantom of the Opera," "Spartacus" in 1960 and the 1962 drama "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Among the directors he worked with were Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Ernst Lubitsch, Douglas Sirk and Fritz Lang, the Times said.

Golitzen fled with his family at the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Washington in 1931.

His first Hollywood job was with MGM. He also worked at United Artists, before joining Universal in the early 40's. He became supervising art director at Universal in 1953 and retired in 1973.

Golitzen is survived by his wife, the former Frances Peters; a daughter, a son, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.