04/27/2026
I was saddened to learn of the death of old colleague, the great production designer Dean Tavoularis.
He was a core Coppola collaborator, along with Walter Murch, Richard Beggs, Barry Malkin, Gordon Willis, Vittorio Storaro and Milena Canonero.
Dean was Art Director on Bonnie and Clyde, and was the Production Designer on all three Godfather films, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, Tucker the Man and His Dream, almost all of Francis Coppola's films.
In 2000 when Paramount decided to release the three Godfather films on DVD, I was hired to produce many short documentaries about the filmmaking process.
I wanted Dean to appear and talk about his work on The Godfather, Part II (1974).
Dean was a shy person, he was rarely in front of the camera. He reluctantly agreed.
Dean met me on the corner of East 6th Street and Avenue B on a cold morning in early 2001.
He recalled the challenges of transforming a lower east side street in 1973 into young Vito (Robert De Niro) Corleone’s neighborhood circa 1915.
He said they wanted to film on location because back-lot New York movie sets always look fake: shots looking down any street or avenue "...end in a T," which almost NEVER happens in Manhattan!
It is hard for me NOT to think about Dean whenever I see movies set in New York City.
Here is the short piece we made.
