- Born
- Died
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- After studying architecture at Cranbrook the world-renowned art and design school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Charles moved to California to pursue his career. Once in Los Angeles, he quickly gravitated to the film industry and began working at Universal Studios as a set designer and assistant art director.
His credits include working with Ridley Scott on Blade Runner (1982), Mike Nichols on Postcards from the Edge (1990), Richard Attenborough on Chaplin (1992) and James Cameron on Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). As an art director he worked with Barry Levinson on Disclosure (1994), Clint Eastwood on The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and William Friedkin on Jade (1995).
As a production designer, he designed the controversial, yet critically acclaimed films, Your Friends and Neighbors (1998) and Nurse Betty (2000), directed by Neil LaBute.
He has designed a number of feature films, including the comedy, Boat Trip (2002) and the effects driven thriller, Eight Legged Freaks (2002), produced by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. In addition, he designed the commercially successful comedies, She's All That (1999), Dude, Where's My Car? (2000) and A Cinderella Story (2004).
He collaborated with director Bryan Barber on Idlewild (2006), a 1930's musical set in the Prohibition South which stars popular recording artists, Outkast. He also worked with Barber on several music videos including "Ain't No Other Man" by Christina Aguilera and "Mesmerized" by Faith Evans.
Recently, he worked with director Dan Pritzker on Bolden (2019) and Louis (2010), companion period films set in turn-of-the-century New Orleans about legendary jazz musicians, Buddy Bolden and Louis Armstrong. He also worked with director Fred Durst on The Longshots (2008).
Nominated for an Emmy for Best Art Direction for HBO's Weapons of Mass Distraction (1997), Charles is also a member of the Art Directors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and sits on its Executive Committee.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous
- Began his career in the motion picture industry at Universal Studios as a set designer at the age of 21 when encouraged to do so by Academy Award winning production designer, John DeCuir.
- In addition to a background in architecture and interior and graphic design, he has an extensive knowledge of fine art photography.
- Deckard's apartment, drawn by set designer Charles William Breen and built on stage at Warner Bros., was inspired by the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis-Brown House in Los Angeles. Breen actually had plaster casts taken from the textile blocks of the Wright-designed house and used them for the walls in the stage set.
- Worked with Pipsan Saarinen, sister of architect Eero Saarinen and daughter of Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, founder of the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
- His mentors include Academy Award winning Production Designers Dean Tavoularis, Ken Adam, Stuart Craig, Terence Marsh and Patrizia von Brandenstein.
- Film is the only creative medium where I can use absolutely everything I've learned in architecture, interior design, graphic design, photography and art. And life.
- I don't know what brought me here or how I got into the movie business. All I know is that every time I start a new film, I'm as excited as that twenty-year-old kid who drove to California not knowing a soul.
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