Emile Kuri

Emile Kuri was a Lebanese-Mexican set decorator and interior designer, whose work with Disney gained him Academy Award nominations for The Absent-Minded Professor, Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, winning for the latter.
Born in Cuernavaca, Mexico, to Lebanese parents who eventually moved to escape a revolution. They soon settled in Los Angeles where he attended Chaminade College Preparatory School. When he was 12 years old, his father died, and needing to support his mother and siblings he found work at a furniture store in Hollywood. Having a sense and ability with design, Kuri decorated store front windows and home furnishings.
While decorating the home of director Hal Roach, he was approached by him to do set design for his comedy film The Topper. He soon made a name for himself in Hollywood where he worked with top directors, like Alfred Hitchcock, David O. Selznick, William Wyler, George Stevens, and Frank Capra with films, such as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .
After he was hired by Walt Disney in 1952 as chief decorator for Disney Studios, Kuri designed Captain Nemo's submarine headquarters for . He would set design much of the live-actions films for the company, such as Pollyanna, Babes in Toyland, The Parent Trap, That Darn Cat, The Love Bug, and many episodes of the Disneyland anthology series. He would later supervise the decorating of the Disney exhibits at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
With his sense of style and attention to detail, Kuri also designed the interior and exterior settings for Disneyland in Anaheim, and served as a consultant at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. and helped decorate company executive offices. Among his other contributions were the Disney Firehouse apartment, the Royal Suite (the Disney apartment in New Orleans Square), the sailing ship Columbia, Club 33, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Plaza Inn, Walt's apartment in Town Square. He retired from the company in 1974 but would supervise select Disney productions in the 1980s, such as The Last Flight of Noah's Ark and Touchstone Pictures' Splash.
Kuri also served on the governing board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was decorator for the annual Academy Awards show for 25 years. He died in 2000 at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills. He was survived by children, Frederick, John, Elizabeth; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
==Filmography==
Year 	Film 	Position
1954 	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 	Set Decorations
1955 	Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier 	Set Decorator
1955–1981	The Magical World of Disney 	Set Decorator
1956 	The Great Locomotive Chase 	Set Decorator
1956 	Davy Crockett and the River Pirates 	Set Decoration
1956 	Westward Ho, the Wagons! 	Set Decorator
1957-1959	Zorro 	Set Decorator
1957 	Johnny Tremain 	Set Decorator
1957 	Old Yeller 	Set Decorator
1958 	Mickey Mouse Club 	Set Decorator
1958 	The Light in the Forest 	Set Decorator
1958 	The Sign of Zorro 	Set Decorator
1958 	Tonka 	Set Decorator
1959 	The Shaggy Dog 	Set Decorator
1959 	Disneyland '59 	Set Decorator
1959 	Darby O'Gill and the Little People 	Set Decorator
1959 	The Big Fisherman 	Set Decorator
1960 	Toby Tyler 	Set Decorator
1960 	Pollyanna 	Set Decorator
1960 	Ten Who Dared 	Set Decorator
1961 	The Absent-Minded Professor 	Set Decorator
1961 	The Parent Trap 	Set Decorator
1961 	Babes in Toyland 	Set Decorator
1962 	Moon Pilot 	Set Decorator
1962 	Bon Voyage! 	Set Decorator
1962 	Big Red 	Set Decorator
1962 	The Mooncussers 	Set Decorator
1962 	Son of Flubber 	Set Decorator
1963 	Summer Magic 	Set Decorator
1963 	Savage Sam 	Set Decorator
1963 	The Incredible Journey 	Set Decorator
1964 	The Misadventures of Merlin Jones 	Set Decorator
1964 	A Tiger Walks 	Set Decorator
1964 	Mary Poppins 	Set Decorator
1965 	Those Calloways 	Set Decorator
1965 	The Monkey's Uncle 	Set Decorator
1965 	That Darn Cat! 	Set Decorator
1966 	The Ugly Dachshund 	Set Decorator
1966 	The Boston Tea Party 	Set Decorator
1966 	Lt. Robin Crusoe USN 	Set Decorator
1966 	Follow Me, Boys! 	Set Decorator
1967 	Monkeys, Go Home! 	Set Decorator
1967 	The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin 	Set Decorator
1967 	Mosby's Marauders 	Set Decorator
1967 	The Gnome-Mobile 	Set Decorator
1967 	The Happiest Millionaire 	Set Decorator
1968 	Blackbeard's Ghost 	Set Decorator
1968 	The Young Loner 	Set Decorator
1968 	The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band	Set Decorator
1968 	Never a Dull Moment 	Set Decorator
1968 	The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit 	Set Decorator
1969 	The Love Bug 	Set Decorator
1969 	Smith! 	Set Decorator
1969 	Rascal 	Set Decorator
1969 	Hang Your Hat on the Wind 	Set Decorator
1969 	Secrets of the Pirates' Inn 	Set Decorator
1969 	The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes 	Set Decorator
1970 	Smoke 	Set Decorator
1970 	Menace on the Mountain 	Set Decorator
1970 	The Boatniks 	Set Decorator
1970 	The Wild Country 	Set decorator
1971 	The Barefoot Executive 	Set Decorator
1971 	Scandalous John 	Set Decorator
1971 	The Million Dollar Duck 	Set Decorator
1971 	Bedknobs and Broomsticks 	Set Decorator
1971 	The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove 	Set Decorator
1972 	Justin Morgan Had a Horse 	Set Decorator
1972 	The Biscuit Eater 	Set Decorator
1972 	Michael O'Hara the Fourth 	Set Decorator
1972 	Napoleon and Samantha 	Set Decorator
1972 	Now You See Him, Now You Don't 	Set Decorator
1972 	Snowball Express 	Set Decorator
1980 	The Last Flight of Noah's Ark 	Supervising set decorator
1981 	Amy 	Supervising set decorations
1983 	Splash 	Supervising set decorator: Los Angeles
2003 	The Making of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 	Self (archive footage)
==Gallery==
1949 Oscar winners for Set Design.png|L-R: John Meehan, Paul Groesse, Barbara Hale, Cedric Gibbons, Ruth Roman, Emile Kuri, and Harry Horner posing for a promotional shot for their Oscar wins in 1949.
Emile Kuri and Walt Disney 1.jpg
Emile Kuri and Walt Disney 2.jpg
==Trivia==
*Kuri once said of set design, "The most difficult thing is to make a set not look like a set, but like a home, as if the people just walked out."
*With his win for The Heiress, Kuri became the first Arab to ever win an Academy Award.
*According to legend, Kuri witnessed a car accident on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles where it dislodged an antique street lamp from its base. Kuri, paid $5 to the police for the ornate lamp post and even offered to haul it away himself. That lamp post is the base for Town Square's 65 foot flagpole.
*He also was honored by the Los Angeles Furniture Mart with its Golden Chair award for his innovative whitewashing of Spanish antiques in The Parent Trap.
*He has a window with his name on Main Street in Disneyland (above the Market Street listed as "Interior Decorator") and Walt Disney World (on the second floor of the Emporium listed as managing "Exterior Decorators").
*His son, John, created the documentary My Dad: His Remarkable Life to showcase Kuri's achievements in the film industry and as a person.
==External links==
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*The Man in the Street: Emile Kuri
*Carroll Clark and Emile Kuri - Setting the Scene for Walt Disney
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Category:1900s births
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Category:Mexican people
Category:Artists
Category:20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Category:Davy Crockett
Category:The Great Locomotive Chase
Category:Westward Ho, the Wagons!
Category:Zorro
Category:Johnny Tremain
Category:Old Yeller
Category:Mickey Mouse Club
Category:The Light in the Forest
Category:Tonka
Category:The Shaggy Dog
Category:Darby O'Gill and the Little People
Category:Toby Tyler
Category:Ten Who Dared
Category:Pollyanna
Category:The Absent-Minded Professor
Category:Babes in Toyland
Category:The Parent Trap
Category:Moon Pilot
Category:Summer Magic
Category:The Misadventures of Merlin Jones
Category:A Tiger Walks
Category:Mary Poppins
Category:That Darn Cat!
Category:The Ugly Dachshund
Category:The Gnome-Mobile
Category:The Happiest Millionaire
Category:Blackbeard's Ghost
Category:The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band
Category:Never a Dull Moment
Category:The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit
Category:Herbie
Category:Rascal
Category:The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
Category:The Boatniks
Category:The Wild Country
Category:The Barefoot Executive
Category:Scandalous John
Category:Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Category:The Million Dollar Duck
Category:Napoleon and Samantha
Category:Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
Category:The Last Flight of Noah's Ark
Category:Splash
Category:Touchstone Pictures
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