John W. Corso

John W. Corso

John W. Corso

Art director, production designer
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John W. Corso

Art director, production designer

December 4

Wabash, Indiana

October 9, 2019

John W. Corso was an American art director and production designer.

A native of Wabash, Indiana, Corso attended Indiana University in Bloomington, and later attended UCLA, where he received a bachelor's degree in theater arts. He was a United States Army veteran, serving during the Korean Conflict, and was part of military Intelligence at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, Corso worked simultaneously as an art director and production designer in films and television. He worked on the films Paradise Alley, Xanadu, Heartbeeps, and Coal Miner’s Daughter, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration. Corso also worked on several films by director John Hughes, including Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, She’s Having a Baby, and Uncle Buck.

Corso’s television work garnered him three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including one win for Outstanding Art Direction for the short-lived series Tales of the Gold Monkey. He also worked on episodes of Columbo, McMillan & Wife, and the mini-series Captains and the Kings, Aspen, and Centennial.

Corso died October 9, 2019, in Huntington, Indiana. He was 89.

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