Barbara Ling, Oscar-Winning Production Designer, Dies at 73

Barbara Claire Ling, the acclaimed production designer celebrated for recreating 1969 Los Angeles in Quentin Tarantino’s *Once Upon a Time in Hollywood*, died Thursday in Santa Barbara after a battle with cancer, a spokesperson for WME confirmed. Ling was 73 and survived by her wife, Lindsay, and their sons, Clay and Will.

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Born in August 1952, Ling began her career designing sets and lighting for more than 200 theater, opera, and musical productions, including the 1981 HBO special *The Pee-Wee Herman Show*. She transitioned to film with David Byrne’s *True Stories* (1986) and went on to work on period pieces such as Oliver Stone’s *The Doors* (1991) and Jon Avnet’s *Fried Green Tomatoes* (1991). Her résumé spans over four decades and includes collaborations with directors Joel Schumacher (*Batman Forever*, 1995; *Batman & Robin*, 1997), Scott Hicks (*Hearts in Atlantis*, 2001), and Marc Forster (*A Man Called Otto*, 2022).

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For the 2019 film, Ling shared the Academy Award for Best Production Design with set decorator Nancy Haigh. The team rebuilt historic facades on Hollywood Boulevard, including the Pussycat Theater marquee, and restored the Bruin Theater in Westwood, employing engineers to ensure structural safety. Their work aimed to eliminate green-screen reliance, immersing actors and audiences in a fully realized 1969 streetscape.

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After receiving her Oscar, Ling warned that Los Angeles “is not a preservation city, never has been,” expressing concern that ongoing demolition of historic structures would make similar recreations impossible in the future. She hoped the film would inspire nostalgia and curb the loss of iconic architecture.

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• “The night of the first shoot when all the neon lit up and the period cars came out and [Arianne Phillips’] costumes were out there, you absolutely believed you were in 1969 because everything was real.” — Barbara Ling, post-Oscar remarks

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• “L.A. is not a preservation city, never has been. Now there’s been a nonstop movement of apartment building and glass towers. … What we did will be impossible to do next year. It’s unfortunate. We hope this will bring some nostalgia back and stop things from being torn down.” — Barbara Ling, backstage interview after winning the Oscar

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