Barbara Ling Dead: ‘Michael’ Production Designer Was 73

Barbara Ling, the production designer behind Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) and Michael (2026), has died. She was 73.

The Academy Award winner died on Thursday in Santa Barbara after she was diagnosed with cancer, a WME spokesperson announced.

Born in August 1952, Ling got her start in Hollywood as a lighting designer on the 1981 comedy special The Pee-Wee Herman Show, before taking on production design with David Byrne’s True Stories (1986).

Ling found her stride as a production designer in the ’80s and ’90s, working on films like Less Than Zero (1987), The Doors (1991), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), on which she also served as an associate producer, Batman Forever (1995), Batman & Robin (1997), Hearts in Atlantis (2001), No Reservations (2007) and A Man Called Otto (2022).

Along with set decorator Nancy Haigh, Ling won the Best Production Design Oscar for their work on Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, also earning her an Art Directors Guild Award and a Critics’ Choice Award, as well as BAFTA and Satellite Award nominations.

Most recently, Ling worked on director Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic, which has grossed nearly $1B worldwide since its release in April.