Robert Boyle (left) accepts the Honorary Oscar from Nicole Kidman during the 80th Annual Academy Awards.

Legendary production designer Robert Boyle has been voted an Honorary Academy Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The award, an Oscar® statuette, was given to Boyle at the 80th Academy Awards® presentation on February 24, 2008, “in recognition of one of cinema’s great careers in art direction.”

Boyle has earned four Academy Award nominations in the art direction category for his work on “North by Northwest” (1959), “Gaily, Gaily” (1969), “Fiddler on the Roof” (1971) and “The Shootist” (1976).

“Robert Boyle’s career is truly worthy of this honor,” said Academy President Sid Ganis. “From his multiple collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock to his top-quality work on so many other films, this is a master film artist and I couldn’t be happier that an Oscar statuette will be presented to him.”

Boyle’s nearly 100 credits begin with Hitchcock’s “Saboteur” (1942) and include “Shadow of a Doubt” (1943), “It Came from Outer Space” (1953), “The Birds” (1963), “Marnie” (1964), “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” (1967), “In Cold Blood” (1967), “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968), “Portnoy’s Complaint” (1972), “Private Benjamin” (1980), “Rhinestone” (1984) and “Dragnet” (1987).

This painting shows an overhead shot of Bodega Bay. Two fires are visible in the town and birds are flying overhead. The Birds (1963).		A man and a woman are visible in the back of a laboratory. Skulls and masks are on the tables and hanging from the walls. Flesh and Fantasy (1943)

He also was the subject of the Academy Award-nominated documentary short “The Man on Lincoln’s Nose” (2000).

Born in Los Angeles in 1909, Boyle trained as an architect. When the Depression cost him his job in that field, Boyle found work in films as an extra. In 1933 he was hired as a draftsman in the Paramount Studios art department, headed by supervising art director Hans Dreier. He went on to work on a variety of pictures as a sketch artist, draftsman and assistant art director before becoming an art director at Universal in the early 1940s.

A drawing of an interplanetary landscape. It Came From Outer Space (1953).		This drawing shows a crowd of people on a city street. You and Me (1938)

Acceptance Speech

Oh, thank you all.

That's the good part of getting old. I don't recommend the other.

It's not possible for me to express my appreciation to the countless people who helped me on this great trip, this wonderful journey of being in the movies.

But I can thank the members of the Board of Governors of the Academy and to Nicole Kidman who so graciously introduced me.

I would like to remember some of the old folk, like Hans Dreier who took a chance and gave me my first job in the movies, and to "Hitch" who also took a chance and gave me my first big film. And I also would like to remember that Hitch introduced me to the screenwriter Bess Taffel, who became my wife and my companion throughout this wonderful journey. I also would like to thank my children and grandchildren who supported me with their love and support, thank them.

To Norman Jewison who made moviemaking fun and much laughter while dealing with real subjects. And to Don Siegel, who cut to the chase and gave us truth.

And with all of these, there was my beginning at the USC School of Architecture and my great colleagues in the Art Directors Guild who supported me, and, finally, to Jean Firstenberg who introduced me to the American Film Institute and the opportunity to give back to the next generation of storytellers.

Since I've been around here for almost a century, I've noted a lot of conflicts, but there was one bright image in this whole life of ours, and that was the arts, and particularly the art of the moviemakers, of the moving image that we all love.

So I have, I have had the good fortune to be a part of this and I thank you all for being there for me. Thank you.