Skip to main content

Tony Walton, Noted Production Designer and Director, Dies at 87

Thu, 03/03/2022 - 17:28
Tony Walton
Courtesy of the Tony Walton Family

Tony Walton, the award-winning director and production designer for theater, film, television, ballet, and opera, died at his apartment in New York City on Wednesday from complications of a stroke. He was 87.

Mr. Walton's many honors for production design included Tony Awards for "Pippin," "House of Blue Leaves," and "Guys and Dolls," and Academy Award nominations for the films "Mary Poppins," "The Boy Friend," "The Wiz," and "Murder on the Orient Express." He won an Oscar for Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz" and an Emmy for "Death of a Salesman."

He also directed productions of Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Noel Coward, and others for New York's Irish Rep, San Diego's Old Globe, Sarasota's Asolo Rep, Guild Hall's John Drew Theater, and Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor.

As a producer, he co-produced six productions in London, three with Hal Prince, and his opera and ballet designs have been seen throughout the United States and Europe. 

Less visible than his theater and film work, his original artwork is no less accomplished. In December, a retrospective of his hand-drawn sketches, paintings, watercolors, and murals was held at Mark Borghi Gallery in Sag Harbor.

Mr. Walton is survived by his wife, Genevieve LeRoy Walton, a daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, and stepdaughter, Bridget LeRoy, and five grandchildren. His first wife, Julie Andrews, also survives. A private service in Sag Harbor and burial at Oakland Cemetery there will take place at a date to be announced.

A full obituary will appear in a future issue.

Villages

Owl's Death Prompts Call for Bird-Friendly Building

Window strikes kill up to a billion birds annually and rank up there with cats and habitat destruction as the leading causes of recent steep declines. After the recent death of a much-watched Eurasian eagle-owl that was set loose from the Central Park Zoo, a bill calling for bird-friendly building measures has been revived in the New York Assembly and Senate.

Mar 28, 2024

Architect’s Descendants Visit East Hampton Gem

Michele L’Hommedieu Hofmann had no idea until retiring last fall and starting to research her family history how prominent a role her great-great-grandfather James H. L’Hommedieu had played in Long Island’s late-19th-century architecture. On a trip to New York that included a stop at an East Hampton house he designed for Robert Southgate Bowne, a founder of the Maidstone Club and first president of the Long Island Rail Road, she and her family got a crash course in L’Hommedieu’s work.

Mar 28, 2024

Item of the Week: Gardiner Family Gossip From 1889

On July 16, 1889, while staying in Lenox, Mass., Sarah Diodati Gardiner Thompson wrote to her daughter Sarah Thompson Gardiner, who was vacationing at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Family news was top of mind.

Mar 28, 2024

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.