Production Designer John J. Lloyd Passes On

John J. Lloyd, who did production design for TV shows from Alfred Hitchcock Presents to Emergency as as well as for films by both John Carpenter and John Landis, died on 20 September 2014 at the age of 92.

John J. Lloyd was born in 1922 in Dearborn, Michigan. In the mid-Twenties his family moved to Raymond, California. Later they moved to Culver City, California. Both his father and uncle worked for MGM. During World War II Mr. Lloyd served in the United States Navy. Following the war he attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles.

His first work as an art director came on the television show Lux Video Theatre in 1950. He later went to work for Revue Studios the television production subsidiary of the powerful agency MCA.  In the Fifties at Revue he worked on such shows as Studio 57, Wagon Train, Suspicion, The Millionaire, Mike Hammer, M Squad, The Jack Benny Programme,and Leave It to Beaver. He worked a good deal on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Checkmate, serving as the show's art director for much of their runs.

In the Sixties John J. Lloyd served as art director on such shows as G.E. Theatre, Thriller, The Tall Man, Wide Country, The Munsters, and The Bold Ones. He worked on such TV movies as The Hanged Man (1964), Memorandum for a Spy (1965), and Code Name: Heraclitus (1967). The first feature film upon which he worked was Munster, Go Home! (1966). He also worked on the films Sergeant Ryker (1968), The Counterfeit Killer (1968), The Hell with Heroes (1968), Winning (1969), and Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970).

With the Seventies John J. Lloyd began to work increasingly in film. He worked on such films as How to Frame a Figg (1971), At Long Last Love (1975), The Day of the Locust (1975), MacArthur (1977), Animal House (1978), The Prisoner of Zenda (1979), and The Blues Brothers (1980). He continued to work in television for much of the decade, working on such shows as Columbo, McMillan & Wife,  Emergency, and Ellery Queen. He also worked on such TV movies as Vanished, The Longest Night, Deliver Us from Evil, and Fear on Trial.

In the Eighties Mr. Lloyd worked on such films as Raggedy Man (1981), John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), D.C. Cab (1983), Crackers (1984), Maxie (1985), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), and Crazy People (1990). His last work was on The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991).

John J. Lloyd was one of the best production designers to ever work in television. Indeed, he was nominated for several Emmy awards (including his work on Alfred Hitchcock Presents) and won for his work on the TV show Checkmate and his work on the TV movie It Happened One Christmas. He was also largely responsible for establishing the look of many shows from Revue and its successor Universal Television, including The Munsters, Columbo, and Emergency. It was John J. Lloyd who designed the rather impressive staircase on The Munsters.

Of course, Mr. Lloyd also worked extensively in film. He was not nominated for any awards for any of his work in the movies, although he really should have been. Indeed, his work on both John Carpenter's The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China was particularly impressive. Here it must be pointed out that Mr. Lloyd also had a gift for capturing the era portrayed in a film perfectly, doing so in both MacArthur and Animal House. John J. Lloyd had a real talent for production design, and it showed in everything he did.