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J. Michael Riva

1948–2012 · 36 titles in the catalogue

John Michael Riva (June 28, 1948–June 7, 2012), better known as J. Michael Riva, was an American production designer.

Riva was born in Manhattan to William Riva, a Broadway set designer, and Maria Elisabeth Sieber, a German-born actress and the daughter of Marlene Dietrich. Riva had three brothers (John Peter, John Paul, and John David). Riva attended the prep school Institute Le Rosey in Switzerland for six years before attending UCLA. Married to Wendy Mickell, he had four sons, Jean-Paul, Mikey, Daniel, and Adam.

Riva had a long and prestigious career as an art director and production designer on numerous films, including the 1985 film The Colour Purple, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Other credits include The Goonies (1985), Lethal Weapon (1987), A Few Good Men (1992), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Iron Man (2008), and Iron Man 2 (2010).

His final films, The Amazing Spider-Man and Django Unchained, were released posthumously. He was the production designer for the opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, as well as for the 74th and 79th Academy Awards in 2002 and 2007, respectively. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for his work on the latter.

Riva suffered a stroke on June 1, 2012, in New Orleans, Louisiana, during production of Django Unchained. He died in a hospital there on June 7, 2012, at age 63. Django director Quentin Tarantino commented, "Michael became a dear friend on this picture, as well as a magnificent, talented colleague."

Description above from the Wikipedia article J. Michael Riv, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Their work

36
  1. Iron Man2008Production Design
  2. Django Unchained2012Production Design
  3. Iron Man 22010Production Design
  4. The Amazing Spider-Man2012Production Design
  5. Spider-Man 32007Production Design
  6. The Pursuit of Happyness2006Production Design
  7. Seven Pounds2008Production Design
  8. The Goonies1985Production Design
  9. Lethal Weapon1987Production Design
  10. Charlie's Angels2000Production Design
  11. A Few Good Men1992Production Design
  12. Lethal Weapon 21989Production Design
  13. Zathura: A Space Adventure2005Production Design
  14. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle2003Production Design
  15. Lethal Weapon 41998Production Design
  16. Evolution2001Production Design
  17. Halloween II1981Production Design
  18. Tango & Cash1989Production Design
  19. The Color Purple1985Production Design
  20. Scrooged1988Production Design · Production Designer
  21. Six Days Seven Nights1998Production Design
  22. The Golden Child1986Production Design
  23. Stealth2005Production Design
  24. Congo1995Production Design
  25. Tales from the Crypt1989Director
  26. Dave1993Production Design
  27. Hard Rain1998Production Design
  28. Ordinary People1980Art Direction
  29. Brubaker1980Art Direction
  30. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension1984Production Design
  31. Bad Boys1983Production Design
  32. North1994Production Design
  33. Amazing Stories1985Director
  34. Radio Flyer1992Production Design
  35. The Hand1981Production Design
  36. The Making of 'The Color Purple'2003as Self