Changes: John M. Dwyer

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John M. Dwyer (born 25 August 1926; age 97) is an Emmy Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated set decorator who has worked on Star Trek: The Original Series, the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and six Star Trek films.

Dwyer started working under the direct auspices of Art Director/Production Designer Walter "Matt" Jefferies, on the Original Series during its second season, beginning with the popular episode "The Trouble with Tribbles". Jefferies' younger brother, Set Designer John Jefferies, worked closely with Dwyer and his team. He remained with the series until its cancellation in 1969. Jefferies, who had to contend with ever tightening budgets, has always been very appreciative of Dwyer, already emphatically stating so in 1968, "In the early stages John Dwyer, set decorator, comes in and looks at the initial drawings. Then he and I sit down and have a talk about what I have in mind. He proceeds to put his talents to work finding the proper dressing along the lines of what we've discussed. I depend on this man very heavily, not only to carry out my ideas, but to come up with an endless fountain of his own ideas. And he does. For the most part, Stage 9 [which houses almost all the standing sets for the Enterprise] is a very static set, and John can turn that over to his assistant, Mike May. Then John has the opportunity to of getting off the lot and searching for unusual things -- something particular he has in mind, or some idea of mine. But John has the opportunity to get out where I don't. So he's my floating eyes and sticky fingers...that's where all the "freebies" come in too. He has a wonderful knack of finding these things...an eagerness and adventuresome sort of spirit that that goes with digging some of these things out." (Inside Star Trek, issue 4, p. 3) His work on the series earned him an Emmy Award nomination in 1969.

Dwyer returned to the Star Trek franchise nearly two decades later when he was brought aboard to decorate the sets for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in 1986. The following year, he was hired as set decorator on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Dwyer left TNG after the first season, however, and Jim Mees took over his position.

Although he left TNG, Dwyer continued to contribute to the franchise. He decorated the sets for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and later did the same for Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, and Star Trek: Insurrection. He most recently worked on Star Trek Nemesis with art director Donald B. Woodruff, with whom he worked before on the 1987 film Jaws: The Revenge, directed by "The Corbomite Maneuver" director Joseph Sargent. During the shooting of Nemesis, Dwyer quit working on the film after having conflicts with the director, Stuart Baird. [1]

In 1996, Dwyer visited the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine sound stages to see the recreated USS Enterprise sets for "Trials and Tribble-ations". (David Gerrold's introduction, "Trials and Tribble-ations" novelization)

Years later, on 17 January 2008, Dwyer played one-time host on the Original Series bridge set recreation, while it was displayed at the opening of Star Trek The Exhibition tour at the Long Beach, California venue. [2]

Career outside Star Trek

Early career

Dwyer began his set decoration career on the hit ABC series McHale's Navy. This was followed by the 1967 made-for-television movie Valley of Mystery, which featured Leonard Nimoy. He would begin working on Nimoy's series, Star Trek, that same year.

After Star Trek, Dwyer worked on such television shows as Night Gallery, Kojak, and Kolchak: The Night Stalker. He also worked on his first film, the Academy Award-winning 1975 blockbuster hit Jaws. Afterward, he decorated sets for the films Midway (1976, starring Edward Laurence Albert and featuring Phillip Richard Allen, Glenn Corbett, James Ingersoll, Robert Ito, Clyde Kusatsu, Monte Markham, and John Schuck), Two-Minute Warning (1976, featuring Allan Miller, Brock Peters, and Garry Walberg), Which Way Is Up? (1977, featuring Marc Alaimo and Morgan Woodward, with cinematography by John A. Alonzo), and Gray Lady Down (1978, starring Ronny Cox, Rosemary Forsyth, and Stephen McHattie and featuring David Clennon and Robert Ito).

Award-nominated works

Dwyer earned his first Emmy Award nomination in Outstanding Art Direction for his work on the 1978 NBC mini-series Centennial. Among the performers who worked on this program are Michael Ansara, Ed Bakey, Henry Darrow, Cliff DeYoung, Robert DoQui, Robert Easton, Alex Henteloff, Brian Keith, Sally Kellerman, Stephen McHattie, Nick Ramus, Clive Revill, Eric Server, James Sloyan, Morgan Woodward and Anthony Zerbe. Dwyer received his second Emmy nomination – which he won – for the 1981 mini-series The Gangster Chronicles, starring Jonathan Banks, Michael Ensign, Louis Giambalvo, Michael Nouri, and Kenneth Tigar.

Dwyer's next project was the acclaimed 1980 Loretta Lynn biographical drama Coal Miner's Daughter, which earned Dwyer his first and only Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (shared with production designer John W. Corso).

Later career

Subsequent films featuring Dwyer's decorating work (besides those in the Trek franchise) include John Carpenter's The Thing (1982, featuring David Clennon and Joel Polis), Paramount Pictures' Beverly Hills Cop (1984, starring Jonathan Banks, Steven Berkoff, and Ronny Cox), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, featuring Earl Boen, Jenette Goldstein, Nikki Cox, Castulo Guerra, Terrence Evans and Abdul Salaam El Razzac), Alien: Resurrection (1997, starring Raymond Cruz, Brad Dourif, Leland Orser, and Ron Perlman, with art direction by Andrew Neskoromny and costume design by Bob Ringwood), and Hollow Man (2000, featuring J. Patrick McCormack and Jimmie F. Skaggs). In addition, he worked with veteran Star Trek production designer Herman Zimmerman on the Paramount films Black Rain (1989, featuring Tim Kelleher, Richard Riehle, and Stephen Root) and All I Want for Christmas (1991, featuring Andrea Martin). The latter picture featured art direction by DS9 art director Randy McIlvain.

Among the television programs on which Dwyer worked later in his career included Magnum, P.I., MacGyver, and the popular 1983 science fiction mini-series V.

Emmy Award Nomination

1969 Emmy Award nomination for TOS Season 3 in the category Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design, shared with Art Director Walter M. Jefferies.

Star Trek credits

Star Trek interviews

Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray special features:
- Star Trek: Insurrection (Special Edition) DVD-special feature, "A Tribute to Matt Jefferies" (2001)
- TNG Season 1 Blu-ray-special feature, "Stardate Revisited, The Origin of Star Trek: TNG, Part 3: The Continuing Mission" (2012)
Print publications:
- "Behind the camera: John Dwyer", D.C. Fontana, Inside Star Trek, issue 1, July 1968, pp. 12-14
- "John Dwyer", Larry Nemecek, Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 1, May 2001, pp. 82-85

External links

Template:IMDb-link
John M. Dwyer at Wikipedia
1968 John Dwyer interview, D.C. Fonatana online version at StarTrekPropAuthority.com

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 '''John M. Dwyer''' {{born|25|August|1926}} is an Emmy Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated set decorator who has worked on ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', the [[TNG Season 1|first season]] of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', and six {{Star Trek films}}.
-Dwyer started working under the direct auspices of Art Director/Production Designer [[Walter M. Jefferies|Walter "Matt" Jefferies]], on TOS during the [[TOS Season 2|second season]], beginning with the popular episode {{e|The Trouble with Tribbles}}. Jefferies' younger brother, Set Designer [[John Jefferies]], was part of Dwyer's team. He remained with the series until its cancellation in {{y|1969}}. Jefferies, who had to contend with ever tightening budgets, has always been very appreciative of Dwyer, already emphatically stating so in 1968, "''In the early stages John Dwyer, set decorator, comes in and looks at the initial drawings. Then he and I sit down and have a talk about what I have in mind. He proceeds to put his talents to work finding the proper dressing along the lines of what we've discussed. I depend on this man very heavily, not only to carry out my ideas, but to come up with an endless  fountain of his own ideas. And he does. For the most part, [[Desilu Stage 9|Stage 9]] [which houses almost all the standing sets for the ''Enterprise''] is a very static set, and John can turn that over to his assistant, [[Mike May (art department)|Mike May]]. The John has the opportunity to of getting off the lot and searching for unusual things -- something particular he has in mind, or some idea of mine. But John has the opportunity to get out where I don't. So he's my floating eyes and sticky fingers...that's where all the "freebies" come in too. He has a wonderful knack of finding these things...an eagerness and adventuresome sort of spirit that that goes with digging some of these things out.''" ([[Inside Star Trek (magazine)|''Inside'' Star Trek]], issue 4, p. 3) His work on the series earned him an Emmy Award nomination in 1969.
+Dwyer started working under the direct auspices of Art Director/Production Designer [[Walter M. Jefferies|Walter "Matt" Jefferies]], on the ''Original Series'' during its [[TOS Season 2|second season]], beginning with the popular episode {{e|The Trouble with Tribbles}}. Jefferies' younger brother, Set Designer [[John Jefferies]], worked closely with Dwyer and his team. He remained with the series until its cancellation in {{y|1969}}. Jefferies, who had to contend with ever tightening budgets, has always been very appreciative of Dwyer, already emphatically stating so in 1968, "''In the early stages John Dwyer, set decorator, comes in and looks at the initial drawings. Then he and I sit down and have a talk about what I have in mind. He proceeds to put his talents to work finding the proper dressing along the lines of what we've discussed. I depend on this man very heavily, not only to carry out my ideas, but to come up with an endless  fountain of his own ideas. And he does. For the most part, [[Desilu Stage 9|Stage 9]] [which houses almost all the standing sets for the ''Enterprise''] is a very static set, and John can turn that over to his assistant, [[Mike May (art department)|Mike May]]. Then John has the opportunity to of getting off the lot and searching for unusual things -- something particular he has in mind, or some idea of mine. But John has the opportunity to get out where I don't. So he's my floating eyes and sticky fingers...that's where all the "freebies" come in too. He has a wonderful knack of finding these things...an eagerness and adventuresome sort of spirit that that goes with digging some of these things out.''" ([[Inside Star Trek (magazine)|''Inside'' Star Trek]], issue 4, p. 3) His work on the series earned him an Emmy Award nomination in 1969.
 Dwyer returned to the ''[[Star Trek]]'' franchise nearly two decades later when he was brought aboard to decorate the sets for {{film|4}} in {{y|1986}}. The following year, he was hired as set decorator on ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''. Dwyer left TNG after the first season, however, and [[Jim Mees]] took over his position.