Maurice Ransford

Ransford qualified as an architect, graduating from the University of Illinois. He worked in this profession for most of the 1920's. In 1940, he joined the art department of 20th Century Fox, eventually rising to the rank of art director. He remained with Fox until his retirement in 1961. Ransford often worked in collaboration with Richard Day or Lyle R. Wheeler. He was known as a meticulous craftsman, noted especially for his sharp, bright production design of Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and as art director of The Foxes of Harrow (1947), both of which gained him Oscar nominations. Ransford always took pains to achieve maximum authenticity. For the sinking of the Titanic (1953), he and Wheeler constructed twenty sets from actual blueprints over a period of several months. Ransford's versatility is demonstrated by his evocative representation of Edwardian London in Hangover Square (1945), the sweltering small-town Mississippi backgrounds of The Long, Hot Summer (1958), or the oppressive resort backdrops of Niagara (1953).