Jewish James Bond producer Sir Ken Adam dies at 95

11 March 2016, 9:14 am
File photo dated 03/06/06 of James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang production designer Sir Ken Adam, who has died aged 95. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Friday March 11, 2016. The film industry titan designed the triangular Pentagon War Room in the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film Dr Strangelove. See PA story SHOWBIZ Adam. Photo credit should read: Joel Ryan/PA Wire

James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang production designer Sir Ken Adam, who has died aged 95 (Photo credit: Joel Ryan/PA Wire)

James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang production designer Sir Ken Adam has died aged 95.

The film industry titan designed the triangular Pentagon War Room in the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film Dr Strangelove.

His biographer Sir Christopher Frayling told the BBC that he died in his sleep at home in London on Thursday.

Born Klaus Adam in 1921 in Berlin, he served in the RAF during the Second World War after his Jewish family fled the Nazis to England.

Sir Christopher said: “As a person he was remarkable. Roger Moore once said about him that his life was a great deal more interesting than most of the films that he designed.

“He was a brilliant visualiser of worlds we will never be able to visit ourselves – the War Room under the Pentagon in Dr Strangelove, the interior of Fort Knox in Goldfinger – all sorts of interiors which, as members of the public, we are never going to get to see, but he created an image of them that was more real than real itself.”

Sir Ken was most famous for his work on the Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s, including the villain’s headquarters in 1962’s Dr No and the Aston Martin ejector seat.

The magical car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was also designed by his hand as well as props on Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker.

He won two Academy Awards, one in 1976 for his work on Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and one in 1995 for The Madness of King George.

He was also Oscar nominated for his work on Around the World In 80 Days, The Spy Who Loved Me and Addams Family Values.

He was knighted in 2003, a first for a production designer, and is survived by his wife Maria Letizia.

Former Bond star Sir Roger Moore led the tributes to the designer tweeting: “Sir Ken Adam – a friend, a visionary and the man who defined the look of the James Bond films.”

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