#peter lamont

Aliens (1986) Directed by James Cameron

Production Design by Peter Lamont

Aliens (1986) Directed by James Cameron

Production Design by Peter Lamont

Aliens (1986) Directed by James Cameron

Production Design by Peter Lamont

Photos of Peter Lamont (longtime visual/aesthetics expert for the James Bond franchise).

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At the 17th Annual Art Directors Guild with Bond Girl Stephanie Seymour (Live and Let Die)

Sporting an Izod Lacoste cardigan and holding up his academy award

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Photos of Peter Lamont (longtime visual/aesthetics expert for the James Bond franchise).

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(apologies for the late post, but the holidays were hectic)

Peter Curtis Lamont, production designer who worked on virtually every James Bond film to date, passed away on December 18, 2020.  He was 91.

Lamont, along with longtime collaborator Peter Ford, was responsible for the aesthetic of 18 James Bond films from 1964’s Goldfinger (the third Bond film by EON Productions) to 2006’s Casino Royale, with one exception: Tomorrow Never Dies, in 1997 (he was working on the movie Titanic at the time, along with Ford, for which he would win an academy award for set decoration/production design).

For Goldfinger, he had been recruited by the production designer at the time, Ken Adam, to design the exterior of Fort Knox (which would be built on the back lot at Pinewood Studios).  In a 2006 interview he said he thought he might be fired because of the cost of his design, but the director and producer (Guy Hamilton and Albert Broccoli, respectively) were apparently unfazed.

Ken Adam told Lamont that he had “better learn to swim underwater” (for the movie “Thunderball”, which contained various underwater scenes), resulting in Lamont taking a crash course in scuba diving.  He also had to spend time studying a Vulcan Bomber (a 1950’s cold war-era nuclear-armed aircraft) in preparation for him building a 14-ton replica for the movie.

For the movie “The man with the Golden Gun”, Lamont had to live on location for 7 months on the Thai island of Khao Phing Kan, which was undeveloped at the time (and for which communications were a challenge.  According to Lamont, “Telephones didn’t work. Telexes took three days, and a letter – God knows where it went!”)

His first Bond movie as production designer was “For Your Eyes Only” (1981).  According to director John Glen, “He (Lamont) was reaching a stage in his career where we were either going to promote him to production designer or he was going to leave the fold and do his own films for someone else because he was that good you couldn’t ignore him anymore.”  Prior to that Lamont had been working as a set decorator or visual arts director for the Bond films.

Lamont proposed building sections of Saint Petersburg (at Leavesden studios) for the tank chase in the movie “Goldeneye” (1995), to avoid bureaucratic complications of filming on location.

For “Casino Royale”, he designed over 40 sets, including the casino interior and the construction site for the Parkour chase.

He had intended to work on the subsequent Bond film, “Quantum of Solace” (2008), but director Marc Forster decided to go with somebody else (according to Lamont, “He (Forster) suspected I would be more sympathetic to the producers than to him”).

Lamont was nominated for an Oscar four times: The Spy Who Loved Me, Fiddler on the Roof, Aliens, and Titanic.

His son Neil Lamont, a successful art director and production designer in his own right, has worked on the Harry Potter films and three Star Wars films.  He also worked with his father on Goldeneye and Titanic.

Lamont was born in London on Nov. 12, 1929 to Cyril and Mabel Lamont.  He served in the British Royal Air Force for 2 years.  He worked at Denham Film Studios (where his father Cyril worked as a signwriter), starting out as a runner then working his way up to draughtsman, set dresser, and assistant art director.

His wife Ann (nee Aldridge) pre-deceased him.  He is survived by daughter Madeline and son Neil.

His autobiography, “The Man With the Golden Eye: Designing the James Bond Films,” was published in 2016.

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Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/dec/25/peter-lamont-titanic-james-bond-obituary

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/peter-lamont-dead-titanic-james-bond-1234866570/