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| Wiard Boppo Ihnen |
He was born in Jersey City NJ, where his father was an architect and artist. He too practiced architecture, but he also studied painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, as well as in Mexico City. On two occasions, he won an Academy Award for art direction, but he is also remembered for other well-known productions, including two of Mae West’s films (Go West, Young Man and Every Day’s a Holiday), and John Ford’s Stagecoach.
In 1940, he married Edith Head, the acclaimed costume designer (he was 5’6”, she was 4’11”). Years earlier, in October 1918 (at the close of World War I), he had enlisted in the US Army, for which he served in camouflage until his discharge in February 1919. According to an obituary in the Los Angeles Times (June 26, 1979, p. 30) he served “in the army” during both World Wars, “as a camouflage expert.”
