Les Dilley, the Oscar-winning art director and production designer, has died. He was 84.
Dilley died on May 20 due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease, his family said. “Les’s legacy lives on in the many iconic films he helped bring to life for over six decades and in his family home he personally built as an homage to his work. His love for the motion picture business was evident to the very end. When he wasn’t on set, he enjoyed constructing things in his workshop at home, playing ice hockey, and a good cup of tea. In addition to his incredible work ethic, quirky British humor, and love of life, he was a dedicated and loving husband, father, grandfather and friend to many. He will be greatly missed,” the family said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
Dilley worked on 100 film and TV projects over his 60 year career, with his biggest credits being Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, for which he earned Academy Award trophies for best art direction. That brought him on set to work with Hollywood directors like George Lucas, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Irvin Kershner, John Landis and Mimi Leader.
Dilley was also nominated for best art direction for Alien, The Empire Strikes Back and The Abyss. In 2020, Dilley was honored with a BAFTA Award for his contribution to British cinema.
Born on July 11, 1941, in the Rhondda Valley of South Wales. Dilley’s family at the end of the Second World War moved to London. At 15 years of age, Dilley started his film career with a plastering and construction apprenticeship at the Associated British Picture Corporation, while also studying architecture and building construction at Willesden Technical College.
At age 23, he was a plaster worker on the James Bond movie From Russia With Love and continued to work his way up the art department ladder as a draughtsman and then assistant art director on films including like Kelly’s Heroes and Jesus Christ Superstar.
In 1973, Dilley became an art director on Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers, and eventually became part of the UK team working on Star Wars for George Lucas, as Dilley worked alongside John Barry, Norman Reynolds and Roger Christian.
Over the next decade, Dilley helped shaped the visual identity on enduring films like Superman, Alien, Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, An American Werewolf in London, Never Say Never Again and Legend. In 1985, he moved to Hollywood to work as a production designer on films like The Abyss, which was released in 1989 and directed by James Cameron.
For that movie, Dilley transformed an abandoned nuclear power plant in South Carolina into a large underwater filming sets, wit the main underwater tank measuring 55 ft deep by 209 ft wide. “The Abyss was the most challenging for me. It was over a year’s worth of work, very long days with a few nights until 3 am, and on weekends the art department did not stop, so I was continually checking on the construction being done. I had worked with water on Legend, Never Say Never Again and Lucky Lady, so I had some experience with water, but nothing close to the scale of The Abyss. Also, my wife Leslie and I had the first of our four children during that film, so that made that time even more memorable,” Dilley recalled in a 2020 interview in Buzz.
Other credits included The Exorcist III, Guilty by Suspicion, Casper, The Peacemaker, Inspector Gadget, Deep Impact and Men of Honor. In the 1990s, Dilley expanded to work as a second unit director on projects like Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, Diabolique, Pay It Forward and Cold Creek Manor.
Dilley is survived by his wife of 38 years, Leslie Lykes Dilley and their four children. He was a member of AMPAS, BAFTA, ADG, DGA, and SAG. Dilley was repped for his entire career at The Gersh Agency, by the late Phil Gersh, David Gersh and Barbara Halperin.