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Draft:Tony Strong

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Tony Strong (7 October 1921 – 10 August 2024) Early life and informal apprenticeship Anthony PercivaI Strong, known as Tony, “one of British cinema’s most sought-after scenic artists,” [1] who worked with a wide variety of directors across many decades of the 20th Century. He had the good fortune to be born into a creative household in Maida Vale. His father was Percy Strong, who at the time of Tony’s birth was head of cinematography at the Gaumont Studios in Shepherd’s Bush. Tony’s mother Gwen was an opera singer. She and Percy had met on the top deck of a bus, where both were scouring the job section of Variety. [2]

But Tony learnt even more directly from his uncle Ted, Percy’s brother, who painted the title cards of silent movies. Ted and his wife Lottie lived in Greenford, and Ted worked on the captions in his home studio, a shed in the garden, where Tony was encouraged to study his technique. “He’d give me a piece of paper or a black card and some white paint, because [the titles] would have illustrations in white.” [3] Tony’s younger brother Geoff also went on to become a scenic artist.

From the age of 10 Tony had the run of the Gaumont Studios, where the young David Lean was his father’s camera assistant. He also sometimes took small parts in the films being shot there or on location, and was able to watch the studio’s scenic artists at work. He watched one pair of artists painting something enormous on the studio floor, which gradually materialised into a train. At a young age Tony was inspired by the film-making of Hollywood director Bernard Vorhaus who, during the early 1930's, worked in London with Tony’s father Percy Strong.

Naval service and marriage

Aged 14, Tony had to leave school to find work because Percy’s leg wound from the Somme meant he could no longer lift the heavy camera. Tony’s plan was to join the Merchant Navy and work his passage to Australia, where he had read the studios would soon eclipse Hollywood. This turned out to be ‘fake news’, so he kept on sailing. By the time the Second World War broke out, he had been to Australia via India and South Africa several times.

With the outbreak of war he was transferred to transatlantic crossings, ferrying Allied troops from North America to Europe. “To earn extra money I did portraits - terrible portraits! – some from photographs. But they sold amongst the troops.”[3] (When America entered the war he found further commissions from the GI’s. “They wanted their jackets painted. I did pin-up girls on the backs of their leather jackets, things like that.” [3]

In 1943, on leave during the Blitz in London, he married the nurse Joan Chilman, known as “Chili”; he was 21, she was 19, and their honeymoon was a day at London Zoo. Their marriage lasted almost 80 years until Chili’s death in 2021, producing a daughter, Vanessa, and a son, Graham, as well as seven grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.

Entertainment industry career – stage and screen

The war over, Tony began painting scenery at the Royal Opera House, where he worked on many shows, including the 1946 production of The Sleeping Beauty designed by Oliver Messel, and from there moved to the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, painting the backlights for its production of Oklahoma. (He was offered the job since he had seen the same show twice on Broadway during the war.) During this period he was also tutored by the painter Feliks Topolski.

In 1952 he accepted a job as senior scenic artist at 23 Macklin Street, Covent Garden, the largest purpose-built studio in London, and produced scenery for almost all the West End theatres. (The studios were built by Thomas Grieve, from the Victorian dynasty of scenic artists.)

In 1957 Tony joined Rediffusion TV, where from 1962 he painted backdrops for the long-running series Richard the Lionheart (1962-63), besides working with the likes of Spike Milligan on The Goon Show, Ready Steady Go and a wide variety of drama productions. From there he soon (unofficially, as he hadn’t yet joined the union) branched out into the cinema industry, kicking off with the second of the Bond films, From Russia with Love (1963).

In 1972 he set up his own company, Tony Strong Scenic Art, working primarily in film [2] ; but over the next five decades he went on to create visual elements for well over 100 TV productions, along with numerous movies and stage productions. Among his many credits were Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). Women in Love (1969), Bloody Sunday (1971), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Gulliver’s Travels (1977), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) and 1984 (1984), for which his designs were BAFTA-nominated.

Flexible and versatile, he welcomed the endless variety these media offered him. “You could be backing anything. It could be a book; it could be a drawing; it could be a portrait; it could be a whole backing all round the studio for a jungle – then they’d build a jungle in front of it.”[3] He relished small, detailed assignments like the Tarot cards in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die (1973) no less than his contribution to Ridley Scott’s fantasy epic Legend (1985) which, according to his son Graham, “he cited as the most impressive sets that he’d ever been on. It was filmed on the 007 stage at Pinewood, and it was completely filmed with trees, jungles, my father’s artworks to continue the jungle into infinity.”[2]

Altogether Strong worked on 35 feature films and 700 TV productions. Ken Russell particularly admired Strong’s work, and used him on virtually all his films. “Ken’s settings of his works were lavish,” recalls Graham, “and perfect material for Tony to work on. He could work in baroque or rococo or whatever was required. But he could also turn to abstract expressionism or photo-realism if required. So it didn’t take very long for word to get around amongst the very best filmmakers in the 1970s and 80s that Tony was a one-stop shop.”[2]

He was close friends with the Goons, through whom he met the Monty Pythons [5] who in 1976 got him to paint a hanging pub-like sign for their new premises in Neals Yard, Covent Garden. Strong produced a gleaming red mouth, complete with teeth and lashing tongue. On one side it read “Neal’s Yard Abattoir”; on the other side, the lips were chapped and the teeth broken and blackened, and it read: “The State of the British Film Industry”. [6]

Even as he approached his centenary Tony Strong never seemed to feel the need to slow down. He died while creating backdrops for the BBC drama series Ludwig (2024). Asked in 2020 about retirement, he responded: “No, I didn’t retire. I just carried on…. I suppose you’re delighted to retire if you’ve been in a job you haven’t enjoyed.” [3]


(1) The Stage, “Tony Strong: Scenic artist who cut his teeth with Cecil Beaton at the Royal Opera House…”, 6-11-24 (2) The Guardian, “Tony Strong obituary” by his son Graham Strong, 4-9-24 (3) Strong interviewed 2021 by filmmaker Jonathan Blagrove of Coda Films Ltd for a project called ‘Smoke and Mirrors’. (4) Oxford Mail, “Tony Strong: Tributes paid to renowned scenic artist”, 4-10-24 (5) A British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. They initially appeared on BBC TV, then moved on to films. (6) The Daily Telegraph, “Tony Strong, prolific scenic artist who worked with Ken Russell, Monty Python, Wings and Ridley Scott”, 24-9-24

Selected Filmography

Richard the Lionheart 1962 From Russia with Love 1963 Diamonds for Breakfast 1968 Anne of the Thousand Days 1969 Women in Love 1969 Lock Up Your Daughters! 1969 The Music Lovers 1970 Sunday Bloody Sunday 1971 200 Motels 1971 The Devils 1971 10 Rillington Place 1971 Live and Let Die 1973 The Journey (Italian, aka The Voyage) 1974 Dracula 1974 Murder on the Orient Express 1974 The Return of the Pink Panther 1975 Last Days of Pompeii 1975 The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella 1976 Gulliver’s Travels 1977 Valentino 1977 The Big Sleep 1978 The Shining 1980 The Elephant Man 1980 Priest of Love [DH Lawrence biopic] 1981 The Return of the Soldier 1982 The Scarlet Pimpernel 1982 Nineteen Eighty-Four 1984 Santa Claus: The Movie 1984 Legend 1985 Batman 1989

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