Ernst Fegté

Ernst Fegté (28 September 1900 – 15 December 1976) was a German art director. He was active in the American cinema from the 1920s to the 1970s, he was the art director or production designer on more than 75 feature films. He worked at Paramount Studios at the height of his career and won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for Frenchman's Creek. He was also nominated in the same category for three other films: Five Graves to Cairo (1943), The Princess and the Pirate (1944), and Destination Moon (1950). He also worked in television in the 1950s and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1956 for his work on the series, Medic.

Early years Born in Hamburg, Germany, Fegté studied art at Hamburg University. He worked in the German cinema and created set murals for Ernst Lubitsch. Fetgé moved to the United States in the 1920s and initially worked in New York, creating backgrounds for various motion pictures produced in that city. He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1956 for art direction on Medic. He also designed sets for the opera. He died in Los Angeles in 1976.

Filmography

Monsieur Beaucaire (1924, backgrounds) Wild, Wild Susan (1925, art director) Womanhandled (1925, art director) In Old Kentucky (1927, set decoration) The Trail of '98 (1928) Jealousy (1929) Animal Crackers (1930, art director) Design for Living (1933) Death Takes a Holiday (1934, art director) The Princess Comes Across (1935, art director) The General Died at Dawn (1936, art director) Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936, art director) Easy Living (1937) College Swing (1938) Star Spangled Rhythm (1942, art director) Specter of the Rose (1946, production design) Canadian Pacific (1949, art director) Destination Moon (1950, production design) Superman and the Mole Men (1951, art director) Run for the Hills (1953) Mohawk (1956) God Is My Partner (1957) Monster from Green Hell (1957) Sierra Stranger (1957, art director) Rockabilly Baby (1957, production design) Tarzan's Fight for Life (1958, art director) The Amazing Transparent Man (1960, production design) B.S. I Love You (1971, art director)

Awards Fegté won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction and was nominated for three more: Won Frenchman's Creek (1944) (shared with Hans Dreier and Samuel M. Comer) Nominated Five Graves to Cairo (1943) The Princess and the Pirate (1944) Destination Moon (1950)