Overview
- Barbara Ling died on Thursday, July 9, in Santa Barbara after a battle with cancer, her agency WME announced.
- She shared the Academy Award for Best Production Design with set decorator Nancy Haigh for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a project that won praise for its full-scale recreation of 1969 Los Angeles.
- Ling began in theater and opera before moving into film in the 1980s and built a four-decade résumé that includes True Stories, The Doors, Falling Down, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, A Man Called Otto, and Michael.
- Her craft favored practical builds and restored facades over green-screen work, a method Tarantino sought for authenticity and one she warned would grow harder as Los Angeles development erased period locations.
- She is survived by her wife, Lindsay, and their sons Clay and Will, and her recent work on Antoine Fuqua’s Michael underscored her continuing commercial and artistic relevance.