Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/780285
His mother was a favorite collaborator of John Huston, and visited the director in 1958 at St Clerans, his family estate in County Galway, Ireland. While there, Stephen took photographs of Huston's seven-year-old daughter and future Oscar-winning actress, Anjelica. She would later write in her memoirs: "This picture was taken by Stephen Dane, a son of Dorothy Jeakins, the costume designer and my mother's best friend. He was probably seventeen or eighteen, and very kind and indulgent, and I decided at that time, he would be one of my first husbands. He didn't have time for that, but he did like to photograph me." Stephen spent his senior year at University High in West Los Angeles, graduating in 1959. He had started as an architectural draftsman during the summer months while in high school, riding his bicycle Monday to Friday, from Brentwood to Beverly Hills, to work for Fred Greene, a popular building contractor. The carpenters coached him on the fine points of detail drawings. Dane studied at Santa Monica City College while working a part-time job at Life magazine and taking illustration classes with Douglas Aircraft at Santa Monica Airport. The courses taught him how to draw 3D isometrics and exploded views of parts and equipment. He then majored in literature at Bard College, where he met and married art student Sarah Draney. Thinking he needed even more vocational education, Stephen enrolled in the Beaux Arts program in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received the Dean's Sculpture Prize for a geometric, four-part modular design showing the possibilities for configuring simple geometric shapes—the building blocks of all architecture. After receiving his degree, he worked for some of the leading West Coast architects, including Harry Gesner, John Fisher, Max Schardt and Frank Gehry. In 1973, work stalled out due to the recession. He went to work on a store interior in West Hollywood but heard Universal Studios was hiring people who could do period architectural design for their theme park. From then, Dane rolled into the film industry and worked as both a Set Designer and Art Director on many films and television shows, including Quincy, B.J. and the Bear, More American Graffiti and The Electric Horseman. Stephen eventually became an Art Director and described the high point of his career during the 1980s when he worked on Blade Runner, Brainstorm, Buckaroo Banzai, Red Dawn and Ghostbusters. He became known for his detailed realization of important vehicles and props, and moved from one film to the next using those talents.