Biography
James J. Murakami (4 June 1931 – 15 December 2022) was an American art director and production designer. Born in Sacramento, California, he later studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles.
Murakami worked extensively with director Clint Eastwood. He shared production design duties with Henry Bumstead on Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and took sole credit on several subsequent Eastwood films, including Gran Torino (2008), Changeling (2008), Invictus (2009), Hereafter (2010) and J. Edgar (2011). His earlier credits include assistant art director roles on Apocalypse Now (1979) and set design on Unforgiven (1992). He also contributed to American Sniper (2014) and Sully (2016).
Murakami received an Emmy Award for art direction on the series Deadwood and was nominated for an Academy Award for Changeling. In 2018 he was honoured with the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
