In Remembrance: Gretchen Rau

     Gretchen Rau, the set designer who won an Academy Award for her work on Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005), has passed away on March 29, 2006 in Northport, New York. She was 66.

     Born on July 6, 1939 in New Orleans, Rau relocated to New York City in 1966 and soon began working at the commercial production house Ampersand as a property master. She transitioned to films in 1980 serving as the prop master on Louis Malle’s crime drama Atlantic City.

     Over her entire career Rau would work as a set dresser on over 35 films including Once Upon A Time In America (1984), Crocodile Dundee (1986), A River Runs Through It (1992), What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993), The Horse Whisperer (1998), Unbreakable (2000) and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004). Her final film was Robert DeNiro’s The Good Shepard which is due to be released later this year.

     In addition to her Oscar win for Memoirs Of A Geisha, Rau also received an Academy Award nomination for her work on 2003’s The Last Samurai.