Dwyer Passes
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John M. Dwyer, award-winning set decorator for the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and six of the Star Trek movies, died on September 15 aged eighty-three.
The cause of death was complications from Parkinson’s disease.
Born in Los Angeles, with a father and grandfather who worked in Hollywood, Dwyer joined the Navy and was on the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany during the Korean War.
When he returned home, he attended Chouinard Art Institute and began working at Universal Studios.
Dwyer joined the original series during its second season and began work on The Trouble With Tribbles episode. He dressed sets for thirty-eight original series episodes, and was nominated with Walter M. Jeffreys for an Emmy for their work on All Our Yesterdays.
“In the original series we had to be really inventive, because we were dealing with stuff that nobody knew anything about,” he said in a Star Trek DVD featurette. “There was no space shows, and we didn’t have any money, so you had to scrounge; in effect, scrounge everything that you got.”
He worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation for one season, and on the following Trek movies: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek: Nemesis.
Other shows and movies on which he worked include 9 1/2 Weeks, Alien: Resurrection, Angel Heart, Beverly Hills Cop, Black Rain, Hollow Man, Kojak, Larger Than Life, McHale’s Navy, Patriot Games, Rocky V, The Eiger Sanction, The Virginian, Tammy, Two-Minute Warning, and more.
Dwyer won an Emmy in 1981 for The Gangster Chronicles. He was nominated for an Academy Award (with John W. Corso) for 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter.
In 2002, Dwyer retired after having worked in Hollywood for almost a half century.
Dwyer is survived by his wife Anita, and his son Matthew.
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