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Herman Fritz Zimmerman (born 19 April 1935; age 88) is an Art Director and Production Designer who worked between 1987 and 2005 on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, and six Star Trek films. Together with Rick Sternbach he designed the space station Deep Space 9, with John Eaves the USS Enterprise-B and the USS Enterprise-E, and the Ten Forward set.

His work on Star Trek earned him four Emmy Award nominations in the category Outstanding Art Direction for a Series, coincidently all for Deep Space Nine episodes. But his work on that series did win him the 1997 ADG Excellence in Production Design Award.

Zimmerman is the father of Deep Space Nine and Enterprise set designer Fritz Zimmerman III, conceptualized and oversaw the design of Star Trek-themed attractions, respectively, the Star Trek: The Exhibition (1995), and Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas as part of the Special Entertainment Events crew (1998), interviewed for the 1995 documentary The Science of Star Trek, wrote an introduction for the 1995 reference book The Art of Star Trek, and co-wrote the 1998 reference book Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual.

During the run of Star Trek, Zimmerman was often referenced on screen, including

On 27 September 2009, Herman Zimmerman, together with fellow designers John Jefferies, Joe Jennings and Scott Chambliss, were honored for their Star Trek contributions in a media event called the "Star Trek Designers Talk Trek History At Art Directors Guild Event" at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, and in which all designers discussed indepth their work on the franchise. The event was moderated by another Star Trek alumnus, Daren Dochterman. [1]

Career outside Star Trek

Herman Zimmerman studied acting and directing at the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois but changed his major to Theatre Production. He worked as associate professor of drama, technical director, and scene designer at the Northwestern University prior to his move to Los Angeles. In 1965 he started to work as assistant art director for the daily soap Days of Our Lives, followed by occupations as set decorator on the talk show Della in 1969.

Between 1971 and 1989 he worked as art director on the television series Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975), The Lost Saucer (1975), Far Out Space Nuts (1975-1977), Land of the Lost (1974-1976), Tales of the Unexpected (1977), The New Odd Couple (1982-1983), Cheers (1984-1986, starring Kirstie Alley), and Brothers (1984-1986, starring Hallie Todd). Feature film credits include the mystery thriller The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler (1971), the television drama The Girl Called Hatter Fox (1977, starring Ronny Cox), the drama Deadman's Curve (1978, with Bruce Davison), the horror film Death Moon (1978, starring Robert Foxworth), the war drama A Rumor of War (1980), the drama Twirl (1981), the television special The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair (1983), the thriller Through Naked Eyes (1983, with David Soul), the television drama Silence of the Heart (1984, with Mariette Hartley), and Ridley Scott's thriller Black Rain (1989).

Prior to his involvement with Star Trek, Zimmerman worked as production designer on the television drama The Burning Bed (1984), the comedy Better Off Dead... (1985, with David Ogden Stiers and Kim Darby), the comedy One Crazy Summer (1986), and the comedy series The Ellen Burstyn Show (1986-1987). During his time on Star Trek he also worked on the family comedy All I Want for Christmas (1991) and the western television series Legend (1995, with John de Lancie). The 2002 production, Star Trek Nemesis appeared to have been Zimmerman's swan-song in the motion picture industry as no later credits are known.

Star Trek credits

(This list is currently incomplete.)

Star Trek awards

Herman Zimmerman received the following award and nominations for his work on Star Trek:

Emmy Award Nominations

Herman Zimmerman received the following Emmy Award nominations as "Production Designer", all in the category Outstanding (Individual Achievement in) Art Direction for a Series

ADG Excellence in Production Design Award

Bibliography

Star Trek interviews

(This list is currently incomplete.)

Further reading

External links

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