Barbara Ling, Production Designer of ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ ‘Michael,’ Dies at 73

Barbara Ling, the Oscar-winning production designer of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” who also designed films including “The Doors” and “Michael,” died July 9. She was 73.

Ling’s career spanned four decades, during which she worked on Oliver Stone’s “The Doors” and Joel Schumacher’s “Falling Down.” She designed the sets for Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic, “Michael,” and won an Oscar for her work on Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

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Schumacher also called on her to design the sets for his Batman movies including “Batman and Robin” and “Batman Forever.” Other notable films on which she served as production designer included “Less Than Zero,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” David Byrne’s “True Stories,” “Making Mr. Right” and Diane Keaton’s “Heaven.”

In designing “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Ling had a tight 12-week prep period. Character and backstory were woven seamlessly throughout the script in such a way that the freeways, hills, streets, the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood Boulevard all lovingly embraced the scenery comprising Western towns and ranches, painted backdrops and facades-on-top-of-facades with era-specific signage of 1969 Hollywood, midcentury homes and vintage vehicles.

Ling’s crew prepped, and the film crew shot, one side of Hollywood Boulevard at a time so as not to interrupt the tourism activities on the boulevard.

In 2019, she told Variety that she sourced original blacklight posters on eBay. “The great thing about this film is that there are so many of the people we brought back to life with this movie. Particularly the poster artists who got ripped off. They’d sign away the right to their posters back then. We did get to pay some people who were still alive some royalties to use their work. Quentin appreciated and loved those stories. That’s what is also unique, he would love to hear those stories,” Ling said.

She was awarded Variety’s artisan award for production design at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival where she talked about working with Tarantino. “His love of directing is like a kid in a candy store,” Ling said referring to the director’s vernacular for detail, adding that being around his infectiousness was “a unique experience.”

Ling also worked on “A Man Called Otto” starring Tom Hanks. The film was produced by Rita Wilson, who wrote on Instagram, “Barbara Ling was our production designer on A Man Called Otto. In 2020 she won an Oscar for her production design for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. What she did on that film was extraordinary because there were no special effects or CGI in how she and Tarantino created 70s Hollywood. Hollywood is my home town. Her work replicated that era perfectly. To understand how she accomplished this “old school” is mind boggling when you’re filming in 2019. Seeing her work in that film, the reality, the detail, the creativity made me realize she had to be the person who brought A Man Called Otto into visual reality. Barbara was quiet, kind, detailed, tenacious, and funny. She was one of the greats. And she will be missed.”

Ling began her career in theater and opera and worked as lighting designer on “The Pee-Wee Herman Show” special in 1981.