Barbara Ling, the Oscar-winning production designer for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” who also designed films such as “The Doors” and “Michael,” died July 9. He was 73 years old.

Ling’s career spanned four decades, during which he worked on Oliver Stone’s “The Doors” and Joel Schumacher’s “Falling Down.” He designed the sets for Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic, “Michael,” and won an Oscar for his work on Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

Schumacher also tapped her to design the sets for his Batman films, including “Batman and Robin” and “Batman Forever.” Other notable films she worked on as a production designer included “Less Than Zero,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” David Byrne’s “True Stories,” “Making Mr. Right” and Diane Keaton’s “Heaven.”

To design “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Ling had a tight 12-week preparation period. The characters and backstory were seamlessly woven throughout the script such that the highways, hills, streets, the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood Boulevard lovingly embraced the landscape comprising western towns and ranches, painted backdrops and facades upon facades with 1969 Hollywood era-specific signs, mid-century homes and vintage vehicles.

Ling’s team set up and the film crew filmed one side of Hollywood Boulevard at a time so as not to disrupt tourist activities on the boulevard.

In 2019, she said Variety who sourced original black light signs on eBay. “The best thing about this movie is that there are a lot of the people we brought back to life with this movie. In particular, the poster artists who were scammed. Back then, they gave up the right to their posters. We were able to pay some royalties to some people who were still alive to use their work. Quentin appreciated and loved those stories. That’s what’s unique too, he would love to hear those stories,” Ling said.

she was awarded Varieties Artesano Award for production design at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where he spoke about his work with Tarantino. “His love for directing is like a kid in a candy store,” Ling said, referring to the director’s vernacular for details, adding that being around his infectiousness was “a unique experience.”

Ling also worked on “A Man Called Otto,” starring Tom Hanks. The film was produced by Rita Wilson, who wrote on Instagram: “Barbara Ling was our production designer on A Man Called Otto. In 2020 she won an Oscar for her production design for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. What she did on that film was extraordinary because there were no special effects or CGI in how she and Tarantino created 1970s Hollywood. Hollywood is my hometown. Her work replicated that era perfectly. Understanding how she achieved this “old school” is mind-blowing when you’re filming in 2019. Seeing her work in that film, the reality, detail and creativity made me realize that she had to be the person who brought A Man Called Otto to visual reality. Barbara was calm, kind, detail-oriented, tenacious and fun.

Ling began her career in theater and opera and worked as a lighting designer on “The Pee-Wee Herman Show” special in 1981.