Known For
Art
Born
Jun 28, 1948
Died
Jun 07, 2012
Place of Birth
Manhattan, New York, USA
Credits
47 titles
J. Michael Riva
Biography
John Michael Riva (June 28, 1948–June 7, 2012), better known as J. Michael Riva, was an American production designer. Riva was born in Manhattan to William Riva, a Broadway set designer, and Maria Elisabeth Sieber, a German-born actress and the daughter of Marlene Dietrich. Riva had three brothers (John Peter, John Paul, and John David). Riva attended the prep school Institute Le Rosey in Switzerland for six years before attending UCLA. Married to Wendy Mickell, he had four sons, Jean-Paul, Mikey, Daniel, and Adam. Riva had a long and prestigious career as an art director and production designer on numerous films, including the 1985 film The Colour Purple, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Other credits include The Goonies (1985), Lethal Weapon (1987), A Few Good Men (1992), Spider-Man 3 (2007), Iron Man (2008), and Iron Man 2 (2010). His final films, The Amazing Spider-Man and Django Unchained, were released posthumously. He was the production designer for the opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, as well as for the 74th and 79th Academy Awards in 2002 and 2007, respectively. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for his work on the latter. Riva suffered a stroke on June 1, 2012, in New Orleans, Louisiana, during production of Django Unchained. He died in a hospital there on June 7, 2012, at age 63. Django director Quentin Tarantino commented, "Michael became a dear friend on this picture, as well as a magnificent, talented colleague." Description above from the Wikipedia article J. Michael Riv, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Filmography
Django Unchained
Production Design
The Amazing Spider-Man
Production Design
Iron Man 2
Production Design
Seven Pounds
Production Design
I Am 'Iron Man'
Self
Iron Man
Production Design
Spider-Man 3
Production Design
The Pursuit of Happyness
Production Design
Zathura: A Space Adventure
Production Design
Stealth
Production Design
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
Production Design
The Making of 'The Color Purple'
Self
Evolution
Production Design
Charlie’s Angels: Getting G’d Up
Self
Charlie’s Angels: Welcome to Angel World
Self
Charlie's Angels
Production Design
Tuesdays with Morrie
Production Design
Lethal Weapon 4
Production Design
Six Days Seven Nights
Production Design
Hard Rain
Production Design
Congo
Production Design
North
Production Design
Dave
Production Design
A Few Good Men
Production Design
Radio Flyer
Production Design
Tango & Cash
Production Design
Lethal Weapon 2
Production Design
Tales from the Crypt
Director
Scrooged
Production Designer
Lethal Weapon
Production Design
The Golden Child
Production Design
The Color Purple
Production Design
Amazing Stories
Director
The Goonies
Production Design
The Slugger's Wife
Production Design
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Production Design
Bad Boys
Production Design
Halloween II
Production Design
The Hand
Production Design
Callie & Son
Production Design
Ordinary People
Art Direction
Brubaker
Art Direction
Fast Charlie... the Moonbeam Rider
Art Direction
Bare Knuckles
Production Design
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Production Design
Bad Georgia Road
Art Direction
Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks
Production Design