
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.
Personal Info
Gender
Male
Birthday
1948-06-28
Place of Birth
Manhattan, New York, USA
Images

Cast
The Making of 'The Color Purple'
20030.0 / 10
Crew
Iron Man
20087.7 / 10
The Pursuit of Happyness
20067.9 / 10
Spider-Man 3
20076.4 / 10
Stealth
20055.4 / 10
The Color Purple
19857.8 / 10
Lethal Weapon 2
19897.0 / 10
Lethal Weapon 4
19986.6 / 10
Lethal Weapon
19877.3 / 10
Charlie's Angels
20005.8 / 10
Iron Man 2
20106.8 / 10
Dave
19936.7 / 10
Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks
19764.7 / 10
North
19945.0 / 10
Bad Boys
19837.0 / 10
Django Unchained
20128.2 / 10
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
19776.0 / 10
The Hand
19816.0 / 10
The Amazing Spider-Man
20126.7 / 10
Ordinary People
19807.5 / 10
Radio Flyer
19927.0 / 10
Zathura: A Space Adventure
20056.4 / 10
Seven Pounds
20087.6 / 10
Brubaker
19807.1 / 10
Callie & Son
19816.7 / 10
Six Days Seven Nights
19986.1 / 10
Fast Charlie... the Moonbeam Rider
19795.1 / 10
Bare Knuckles
19774.7 / 10
The Slugger's Wife
19853.4 / 10
Evolution
20016.1 / 10
Scrooged
19886.8 / 10
A Few Good Men
19927.5 / 10
Tuesdays with Morrie
19997.3 / 10
Hard Rain
19985.8 / 10
Bad Georgia Road
19776.4 / 10
Tango & Cash
19896.5 / 10
The Goonies
19857.5 / 10
Congo
19955.6 / 10
The Golden Child
19865.9 / 10
Halloween II
19816.6 / 10
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
20035.5 / 10