James J. Murakami, an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated art director, passed suddenly on Thursday, leaving the production industry in sadness.
For his Emmy-winning work as the art director on HBO’s Deadwood and his numerous partnerships with Clint Eastwood, Murakami is best known.
The majority of Murakami’s formative years were spent in Campbell, California, after his June 1931 birth in Sacramento, California.
After the war, he relocated to Venice, California, where he and his family had been housed during World War II at a military relocation camp.
James J. Murakami wife: Who is Ginger Murakami?
His wife Ginger confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he passed away on December 15 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles as a result of complications from a fall.
Murakami leaves behind his 34-year-old wife Ginger, Patricia, their daughter, and John and Sandee, his stepchildren.
In 2008’s Changeling, where he served as production designer, Murakami received his lone Oscar nomination, replacing Eastwood as his go-to designer.
They collaborated on the movies “Grenadine,” “Invictus,” “Hereafter,” “J. Edgar,” “Trouble With the Curve,” “Jersey Boys,” “American Sniper,” and “Sully,” before he retired and was honored with the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
