William Ladd Skinner

William Ladd Skinner is an art director and set designer who worked as set designer on.

Skinner graduated from William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California in 1967 and earned his BFA in Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut in 1972.

He started to work as set designer in the 1970s on projects such as the television thriller Winter Kill (1974, with Tim O'Connor, Lawrence Pressman, and Eugene Roche), the comedy Uptown Saturday Night (1974, makeup by Monty Westmore), the music drama New York, New York (1977, working with Alan Sims and Richard McKenzie), the crime comedy A Piece of the Action (1977, with Marc Lawrence and Karole Selmon), the crime comedy The Choirboys (1977), the horror drama Coma (1978, with Geneviève Bujold, Vaughn Armstrong, and Mary Mascari), the thriller The China Syndrome (1978), and the war comedy 1941 (1979, working with Dan Gluck).

In the 1980s, Skinner worked as set designer on the action drama Raise the Titanic (1980, cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti and set decoration by Mickey S. Michaels), the Western Heaven's Gate (1980, working with Nancy Mickelberry), the crime comedy Stir Crazy (1980), the crime drama The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), the Western adventure The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981), the science fiction thriller Blade Runner (1982, set decoration by Linda DeScenna and Leslie Frankenheimer and costume design by Michael Kaplan), the science fiction adventure The Ice Pirates (1984, cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti and set decoration by John M. Dwyer), the science fiction thriller 2010 (1984, working with Syd Mead, Greg Papalia, and Gregory Pickrell), the drama The River (1984), the comedy Nothing in Common (1986), and the crime thriller Lock Up (1989, working with Kurt V. Hulett).

Skinner also worked as set decorator on the action sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985, music by Jerry Goldsmith), as art director on the sport drama Rocky IV (1985, film editing by John W. Wheeler and casting by Amanda Mackey Johnson), the action thriller Cobra (1986), and the sport drama Over the Top (1987, casting by Ron Surma), and as supervising art director on the mystery thriller Leviathan (1989, starring Peter Weller and Meg Foster and music by Jerry Goldsmith).

In the 1990s, he worked as art director on the Western drama Dances with Wolves (1990, film editing by William Hoy), the crime comedy Oscar (1991), the comedy Brain Donors (1992), the drama The Bodyguard (1992, starring Bill Cobbs and Mike Starr), the family comedy Little Giants (1994), the drama Pontiac Moon (1994), the science fiction thriller Twelve Monkeys (1995), the action drama Eraser (1996, starring Vanessa Williams), the action sequel Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), and the science fiction remake Godzilla (1998, casting by April Webster and art direction by Robert Woodruff).

In addition, Skinner worked as production designer on the action thriller On Deadly Ground (1994, music by Basil Poledouris), as set designer on the comedy Going Under (1991), and as Los Angeles unit art director on the thriller The Peacemaker (1997).

Further credits as art director in the 2000s include the war drama Pearl Harbor (2001), the thriller K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), the science fiction film Rollerball (2002), the science fiction film Timeline (2003, music by Brian Tyler), the fantasy adventure Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and its sequels Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), the science fiction comedy Idiocracy (2006), the crime thriller Mr. Brooks (2007), the horror thriller I Am Legend (2007, screenplay and produced by Akiva Goldsman, co-produced by Tracy Tormé, executive produced by Dana Goldberg, and costume design by Michael Kaplan), and the comedy Meet the Spartans (2008).

Skinner also worked as production designer on the thriller U-571 (2000, art direction by Robert Woodruff) and on the science fiction film Alien Hunter (2003, casting by Mary Jo Slater). For his work as art director on the crime drama Public Enemies in 2009, Skinner earned a Satellite Award nomination in the category Best Art Direction & Production Design in 2009 and an Art Director's Guild Excellence in Production Design Award nomination in the category Period Film in 2010. He shared both nominations with production designer Nathan Crowley. Skinner previously earned Art Director's Guild Excellence in Production Design Award nominations in the category Fantasy Film in 2004, 2007, and 2008 for his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Among his fellow nominees are Robert Woodruff and Donald B. Woodruff.

More recent work as art director include the fantasy adventure Gulliver's Travels (2010), the science fiction sequel Tron (2010, cinematography by Claudio Miranda), the science fiction film Battleship (2012, art direction by Aaron Haye), the Marvel comic adaptation The Amazing Spider-Man (2012, executive produced by Stan Lee, music by James Horner, and art direction by Michael E. Goldman), the fantasy comedy This Is the End (2013), the science fiction sequel Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), the pilot episodes of Salem (2014, starring Kevin Tighe and created, written, and executive produced by Brannon Braga) and Scorpion (2014, directed and executive produced by Justin Lin, executive produced by Heather Kadin, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci, co-produced by April Nocifora, music by Brian Tyler, editing by Dylan Highsmith and Steven Sprung, and costume design by Sanja Milkovic Hays), the action drama The Finest Hours (2016), and the video game adaptation Warcraft (2016, art direction by Dan Hermansen).

Skinner worked as production designer on the drama Gimme Shelter (2013) and as set designer on the action drama Free State of Jones (2016) and the comedy The House (2017, working with Chris Arnold).

Most recently, Skinner worked as art director and set designer on the science fiction film Alita: Battle Angel (2018).