- Born
- Died
- Renowned Viennese architect Joseph Urban was enticed to come to America in 1911 to design the elaborate stage sets in New York City for the Follies revues of impresario Florenz Ziegfeld. Media bigwig William Randolph Hearst then brought him to Hollywood, in the 1920s,where he did art and set decoration for films starring Hearst's mistress Marion Davies. Urban's daughter Gretl helped out by making costumes for the actress as well.Hearst financed the construction of the Ziegfeld Theater, which Urban built. Urban's film work is mostly for the silents, as he died in 1933.
- IMDb mini biography by: Lawrence Chadbourne
- SpouseMary Porter Beegle(January 1919 - July 10, 1933) (his death)
- Under contract at Paramount (1920-1922); MGM (1924-1925); Fox (1930-1931).
- Came to films via William Randolph Hearst. Hearst wanted a more polished look to the films starring his mistress, Marion Davies.
- Came to prominence as set designer for the Ziegfeld Follies from 1915 to 1932.
- In addition to his set design work for Cosmopolitan, Urban oversaw the rebuilding of Cosmopolitan-International Studios after it was damaged by a fire in 1923.
- According to biographers Leon Barsacq and Elliott Stein, Urban was so well known as an architect and designer at the time he began working for William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions, that he was probably the only household name working as a film designer during the early 1920s.
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