From Playbill Obituary, 9/21/2000
Kert Lundell, a Swedish-born set designer who created the physical worlds of Off-Broadway and Broadway productions, died Sept. 11, according to The New York Times.
Mr. Lundell, 64, died of lung cancer, and lived in Manhattan.
Last year, Mr. Lundell designed the set for the world premiere of Frank D. Gilroy’s Contact With the Enemy, which earned him a Drama Desk nomination for design. He won the Drama Desk Award three times in the past and received the Joseph Maharam Design Award.
Among his 75 productions were Broadway’s The Sunshine Boys, Melvin Van Peebles’ Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death (which earned him a Tony Award nom), Arthur Kopit’s Indians, Hogan’s Goat with Faye Dunaway, Johnny Got His Gun, the Broadway revival of Shenandoah, Gower Champion’s Rock-a-Bye Hamlet, Peter Weiss’ The Investigation and Aven-U Boys.
His work has been seen at the Edinburgh Festival and the Spoleto Festival, and he designed several movies, including Clint Eastwood’s “Bronco Billy.” Mr. Lundell was a design consultant for Disney’s EPCOT Center, and was an architectural theatre consultant for Smith College, Kalamazoo College and American Place Theatre. He was also a furniture designer who won International Design Magazine’s 1986 Furniture Design Award.
The Times reported that Mr. Lundell was born in Malmo, Sweden, and came to the U.S. with his family when he was 15. He graduated from Goodman Theater School in Chicago and studied at Yale School of Drama.
He is survived by his wife, Bretta, a son, Erik, and a daughter, Kate, all from Manhattan.
| Credit Type | Production | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Set Designer | Don’t Let it Go to Your Head | 1977-78 Season |
| Set Designer | Waltz of the Stork Boogie | 1984-85 Season |
| Lighting Designer | Taking of Miss Janie | 1974-75 Season |