Lyle R. Wheeler

Former magazine illustrator and industrial designer who began his film career in the mid-1930s. Wheeler was named supervising art director at 20th Century-Fox in 1944 and promoted to the head of the art department three years later. His distinguished work adorned everything from lush period melodramas ("Gone With the Wind" 1939), to dank film noirs ("Call Northside 777" 1948) to swank musicals ("South Pacific" 1958). Son W Brooke Wheeler is a production designer who has worked on several recent J Lee Thompson films.