Have you ever wondered how the dreamlike worlds of Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts came to life? How these secret spaces moved from book to screen? This was the job of Stuart Craig, the production designer for Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and “Superman: The Movie” (1978), who passed on Sept. 7, 2025 at the age of 83.
Craig was the lead production designer for the Harry Potter movies and created the visual aesthetic for the films. He lost his life to Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological disorder that slowly eats away at one’s ability to move, coordinate and balance, something he battled for more than a decade. Stuart Craig was among one of the greats in his field, a three-time Academy Award-winning production designer.
Craig created the critically acclaimed movies “Ghandi” (1982), that followed the life of Mohandas Gandhi who stood against the British inquisition of his country, “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988), which followed Marquis de Merteuil plotted revenge against her ex-lover, and “The English Patient” (1996), where a young soldier is injured in a plane crash and tended to by a young nurse while his past is slowly revealed. Every one of these movies won an Oscar and went on to be nominated 8 more times. Stuart Craig went on to win more awards as his career progressed.
He won a BAFTA award for his work in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005), and two for “The Elephant Man” (1980) and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (2016). All of these films went on to win numerous more awards in different categories.
Craig’s career began 42 years ago when he worked on his first movie as a production designer, “Saturn 3” (1980), which didn’t gain much notoriety. He went on to release “The Elephant Man” in the same year, a stark contrast in fame to Saturn 3.
Stuart Craig’s final movie was “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” (2022). The movie was nominated for two awards, the Visual Effects Society and the National Film, but did not win either. Stuart Craig left behind a career of awe-inspiring movies that made an impact on their viewers. Harry Potter itself is still a household staple for movie nights and has brought together generations of people.
Its worldwide fame garnered attraction for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park at Universal Orlando, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan, which were designed by Stuart Craig. The park attracts more than 11 million visitors per year, leaving behind a legacy of fantastical worlds and a skill to bring movies to life with his set designs.
