Saul Bass   Page 1 of 16 Add estate info Date of birth (location) 8 May 1920 New York, New York, USA Date of death (details) 25 April 1996 Los Angeles, California, USA. (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) Trivia Saul Bass   Page 11 of 16 Trivia Bass designed many of the key scenes in Psycho (1960), including the infamous shower scene censors had the filmmakers re-edit a great many times because it was unacceptable. (There are 70 camera set ups in the that scene, which lasts only a couple of minutes and took a week to shoot!) In the opening credits to Cape Fear (1991), Bass superimposed shots from the title sequence he did for John Frankenheimer's Seconds (1966). It has been said that once you see the opening titles to a film that Saul Bass has done, you can walk out of the theatre because you know exactly what the film's about: he has shown you the entire thing in the first minute or so. Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia: Directors from Alfred Hitchcock to Martin Scorsese have turned to this brilliant graphic designer to fashion main titles which will set the mood for their films. He first worked with Otto Preminger on Carmen Jones (1954), but it was his design concept for The Man With the Golden Arm (1955) that really caught people's attention. Thereafter, he created posters and logos for all of Preminger's films, among them Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Exodus (1960), and Advise and Consent (1962). He also brought his design expertise and sense of humor to the main titles of Around the World in 80 Days (1956). After making an arresting title sequence for Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), the director hired him to not only make titles, but also act as visual consultant on North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960). For the latter film, Bass actually laid out a blueprint for the bravura shower murder sequence. He later designed the elaborate epilogue title sequence for West Side Story (1961), filmed an eerie cat "walking the line" for Walk on the Wild Side (1962), and conceived the racing sequences for Grand Prix (1966). In the mid 1960s, Bass grew tired of being an appendage to other people's films, and started making his own very personal short subjects The Searching Eye, The Solar Film, Notes on the Popular Arts several of which were nominated for Academy Awards; Why Man Creates (1968) in fact won an Oscar as Best Live-Action Short Subject. In 1974 he made his feature-film directing debut with the science fiction story Phase IV, but the picture was not a success. After filming an elaborate and amusing title sequence for That's Entertainment, Part 2 (1976), he returned to the world of graphic design, where he created logos for corporations and products ranging from United Air Lines to Lawry's seasonings. After a long hiatus from film titles, he started accepting assignments again in the 1980s, working with his wife Elaine. They started simply, with designs for films like Broadcast News (1987) and Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas (1990), before diving into more ambitious and elaborate work. Their moody design for Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991) was topped by their brilliant evocation of The Age of Innocence (1993). Like all great Bass titles, this one set the stage for the film that followed and offered moviegoers a miniature film within a film.  Saul Bass  Amazon.com  Video  DVD  Soundtrack Also available:    Books ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Filmography as: Miscellaneous Crew, Director, Producer, Visual Effects, Actor, Himself ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Miscellaneous Crew - filmography (1990s) (1980s) (1970s) (1960s) (1950s) 1. Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, A (1995) (TV) (title designer) 2. Casino (1995) (title designer) ... aka Casino (1995) (France) 3. Higher Learning (1995) (title designer) 4. Age of Innocence, The (1993) (title designer) 5. Mr. Saturday Night (1992) (title designer) 6. Cape Fear (1991) (title designer) 7. Doc Hollywood (1991) (title designer) 8. Goodfellas (1990) (title designer) ... aka GoodFellas (1990) (USA: poster title) 9. War of the Roses, The (1989) (title designer) 10. 84C MoPic (1989) (thanks) ... aka 84 Charlie Mopic (1989) (USA: closing credits title) 11. Big (1988) (title designer) 12. Broadcast News (1987) (title designer) 13. Human Factor, The (1980) (title designer) 14. Alien (1979) (title designer) (uncredited) 15. That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) (title designer) 16. Rosebud (1975) (title designer) 17. Phase IV (1974) (title designer) ... aka Phase Four (1974) (UK) 18. Such Good Friends (1971) (title designer) 19. Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966) (title designer) 20. Grand Prix (1966) (montage) (title designer) 21. Seconds (1966) (title designer) 22. Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) (title designer) 23. In Harm's Way (1965) (title designer) 24. Cardinal, The (1963) (title designer) 25. Victors, The (1963) (title designer) 26. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) (title designer) ... aka It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) (USA: promotional title) 27. Nine Hours to Rama (1963) (title designer) ... aka Nine Hours to Live (1963) (USA: alternative title) 28. Flashing Spikes (1962) (TV) (title designer) 29. Advise and Consent (1962) (title designer) 30. Walk on the Wild Side (1962) (title designer) 31. Something Wild (1961) (title designer) 32. West Side Story (1961) (title designer) 33. Facts of Life, The (1960) (title designer) 34. Spartacus (1960) (design consultant) 35. Ocean's Eleven (1960) (title designer) 36. Exodus (1960) (title designer) 37. Psycho (1960) (pictorial consultant) (title designer) 38. North by Northwest (1959) (title designer) 39. Anatomy of a Murder (1959) (title designer) 40. Big Country, The (1958) (title designer) 41. Vertigo (1958) (title designer) 42. Bonjour tristesse (1958) (title designer) ... aka Bonjour tristesse (1958) (USA) 43. Cowboy (1958) (title designer) 44. Pride and the Passion, The (1957) (title designer) 45. Saint Joan (1957) (title designer) 46. Young Stranger, The (1957) (title designer) 47. Edge of the City (1957) (title designer) ... aka Man Is Ten Feet Tall, A (1957) (UK) 48. Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) (title designer) 49. Attack (1956) (title designer) (uncredited) 50. Johnny Concho (1956) (title designer) 51. Storm Center (1956) (title designer) 52. Trapeze (1956) (title designer) (uncredited) 53. Man with the Golden Arm, The (1955) (title designer) 54. Big Knife, The (1955) (title designer) 55. Shrike, The (1955) (title designer) 56. Seven Year Itch, The (1955) (title designer) 57. Racers, The (1955) (title designer) ... aka Such Men Are Dangerous (1955) (UK) 58. Carmen Jones (1954) (title designer) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Filmography as: Miscellaneous Crew, Director, Producer, Visual Effects, Actor, Himself ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Director - filmography (1980s) (1970s) (1960s) 1. Quest (1983) 2. Solar Film, The (1980) 3. Notes on the Popular Arts (1977) 4. Phase IV (1974) ... aka Phase Four (1974) (UK) 5. Why Man Creates (1968) 6. From Here to There (1964) 7. Searching Eye, The (1964) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Filmography as: Miscellaneous Crew, Director, Producer, Visual Effects, Actor, Himself ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Producer - filmography (1980s) (1970s) 1. Quest (1983) (producer) 2. Solar Film, The (1980) (producer) 3. Bass on Titles (1977) (producer) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Filmography as: Miscellaneous Crew, Director, Producer, Visual Effects, Actor, Himself ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visual Effects - filmography 1. Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966) (visual consultant) 2. Grand Prix (1966) (visual consultant) 3. West Side Story (1961) (visual consultant) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Filmography as: Miscellaneous Crew, Director, Producer, Visual Effects, Actor, Himself ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Actor - filmography 1. Bass on Titles (1977) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Filmography as: Miscellaneous Crew, Director, Producer, Visual Effects, Actor, Himself ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Himself - filmography 1. Otto Preminger (1999) 2. Fear in the Dark (1991) (TV) .... Himself