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70 P E R S P E C T I V E | M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 6 milestones JOHN LEIMANIS 1932 – 2015 by his daughter Kaija Leimanis Production Designer, Art Director and Set Designer John Leimanis was born September 24, 1932, in Riga, Latvia. Like so many of his contemporaries, John was a product of the busy Universal Television Art Department of the 1970s. Beginning as a Set Designer, he was promoted to Assistant Art Director, and finally, to Art Director on the very successful series Kojak, spun off from an early made-for-television movie called The Marcus-Nelson Murders. John became a Universal Art Department regular, and was assigned to a succession of popular series: Switch, with Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert; The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo; and several television movies. In 1981, he moved from Universal to Fox and continued designing hit series such as M*A*S*H, Maquerade and Airwolf, many of these for producer Glen Larson who had also moved from Universal to Fox and relied on John to provide a consistent look to his projects. In between series assignments, John continued designing for television movies such as Guess Who's Coming for Christmas?, Sins of the Mother and John's final MOW, A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story, about the Southern author and her struggles allowing her novel Gone With the Wind to be adapted into a screenplay and Oscar ® -winning film. He also had a long run on the independent series Baywatch, at that point the most successful series on television. He retired slowly, working a few years as an Assistant Art Director and Set Designer, often for top Production Designers such as Ken Adam (Addams Family Values), Bill Sandell (The Perfect Storm) and Nelson Coates (Man of the House). He died November 29, 2015, in Rogue River, Oregon, in his home surrounded by his family. He left behind his loving wife of fifty-four years, Maija, his son Sean and daughter Kaija, his two sisters Laila and Baiba, and many loving friends and family here and in Latvia