Born in New Haven, Connecticut. Hailing from the silent era, when visuals determined a picture's impact, Menzies revolutionized the craft of art direction in Hollywood, becoming the first man billed as "production designer" and in some cases playing a bigger part in the design of a film than its director. His 1924 collaboration with Douglas Fairbanks' THE THIEF OF BAGDAD led to a career that has yet to be equaled. Menzies' visual style is characterized by a three-dimensional sensibility, and his input extended to costume design and special effects, as well as set design and construction. Silent films that bore his distinctive stamp include THE EAGLE (1925), THE BAT, SON OF THE SHEIK (both 1926), THE BELOVED ROGUE (1927), SADIE THOMPSON (1928), and LADY OF THE PAVEMENTS (1929). The first year that Academy Awards were given, he was presented one for Interior Decoration, for TEMPEST and THE DOVE (both 1928); he was subsequently nominated for Douglas Fairbanks' THE IRON MASK and BULLDOG DRUMMOND (both 1929). In 1930 producer Joseph M. Schenck enabled him to direct a series of early talkie short subjects pictorializing great works of music, including ZAMPA, THE WIZARD'S APPRENTICE and HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY. They offered Menzies his first opportunity to craft his own films (mostly on leftover sets from THE BELOVED ROGUE, TEMPEST et al). Several years later he began directing features (teamed with various codirectors) including the stylish THE SPIDER (1931) and CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (1932). His best, and best-remembered, film as director was the British-made THINGS TO COME (1936), an art director's dream, but Menzies returned to production work in the late 1930s and did some of his finest work in the decade to follow. He was given an honorary Academy Award for his landmark work on GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) and also made distinctive visual contributions to THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (1938), Alfred Hitchcock's FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940, featuring, among other showpieces, a unique airplane), and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943). He returned to directing in earnest in the 1950s, showing an odd taste in material, including DRUMS IN THE DEEP SOUTH, the anti-Communist THE WHIP HAND (1951), his fondly remembered science fiction outing INVADERS FROM MARS (1953, a visual treat), and the extremely strange gothic yarn THE MAZE (1953) which was shot in 3-D. He also worked as art director on all of those projects, and added producing to his rèsumè with THE BLACK BOOK (1949) and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956), on which he served as associate producer.  Interior Decoration 1927-28: TEMPEST and THE DOVE  Nominated for Interior Decoration 1928-29: ALIBI and THE AWAKENING  Nominated for Interior Decoration 1929-30: BULLDOG DRUMMOND  Honorary Award 1939: "For outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of GONE WITH THE WIND." 3 nominations, 1 Award, 1 Honorary Award