Biography

Edward C. Carfagno

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The distinguished art director and production designer Edward Carfagno had a long career under contract to MGM (1943-1970). During that time, he worked on some of the studio's most prestigious films and established a reputation for creating an authentic and accurate period feel. He frequently worked on costume epics made by MGM at Cinecitta in Rome. Carfagno was nominated thirteen times for Academy Awards, winning for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), sharing with Cedric Gibbons, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason; Julius Caesar (1953)with Gibbons, Gleason and Hugh Hunt); and Ben-Hur (1959)with Gibbons, Hunt and William A. Horning). His other notable contributions include Quo Vadis (1951), Soylent Green (1973) and Pale Rider (1985) (one of five Clint Eastwood-directed films he worked on as set designer).

A graduate from the University of Southern California, Carfagno started work at MGM in 1939 as a draftsman on The Wizard of Oz (1939), quickly working his way up to production designer. His first fully credited film in that capacity was the Lucille Ball comedy Best Foot Forward (1943). Edward Carfagno was inducted into the Art Director's Guild Hall of Fame in 2007.
- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis

Member of US Olympic fencing team.
A widower at the time of his death, he was survived by a son, Edward Jr., and two daughters, Carol and Linda, as well as two grandchildren.

[on working with Cedric Gibbons at MGM]: Drawings would be taken in for Mr. Gibbons to look at and initial. If there was something he didn't like or felt should be improved, he would criticize it and we would change it, but, most times, it was something he would okay. He relied on his art directors. If something went wrong and a director complained that a set wasn't what he had been promised, Mr. Gibbons would go down and look at it and say, "Oh, yes, that was what we promised you," - or, if, it wasn't, he'd admit it and we'd change it. He was a very good person, besides having excellent taste and being a great organizer. He really was a great guy.

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