Sy Tomashoff(1922-2019)

Seymour Tomashoff was born on September 11, 1922, in New York City. He attended Curtis High School on Staten Island and New York's City College before being sent to the Engineering Officer Training Program at Carnegie Tech at the outset of World War II. He eventually served as a rifleman under General George S. Patton and was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge and a Bronze Star for valor. Back home, Tomashoff received a bachelor's degree in architecture from Carnegie Tech in 1950, then landed a job as a scenic artist at ABC Studios in New York. In the '50s and '60s, he worked as an art director on such shows as The Edge of Night (1956), East Side/West Side (1963), and Open End (1958). Tomashoff joined series creator Dan Curtis at the beginning of Dark Shadows (1966), which aired from June 1966 through April 1971. The gothic daytime drama around vampires - though filmed in a tiny New York studio - was set in a brooding mansion in the fictional town of Collinsport, Maine. Tomashoff was instrumental in creating the particular look of this highly unusual daytime program which became a cult phenomenon, but was struck with a limited budget. Following Dark Shadows, Tomashoff re-teamed with Lela Swift, a director on the show, on another ABC soap, Ryan's Hope (1975). During his 7-year-run, he received his first Daytime Emmy for design achievement for a drama series in 1981. He went on to work on NBC's Santa Barbara (1984) and CBS' Capitol (1982) before partnering with legendary writer William J. Bell on a new CBS soap set in the bustling fashion industry and based in Los Angeles, California. Just shy of the premiere ofThe Bold and the Beautiful (1987) in 1987, Tomashoff won another Daytime Emmys in 1988 and four more between 1991 and 1994. Even though he retired after 13 years, Tomashoff's legacy of set design is still very much alive: the décor of the Forrester Mansion as well as the fashion house Forrester Creations have been nearly unchanged for more than 30 years and continue to be staples and set the precedent for production design on this glamorous soap opera. Tomashoff had been married to his wife Naomi since 1952 with whom he had two daughters, Ivy and Liz. He died peacefully on July 28, 2019 at the biblical age of 96 in Los Angeles.