Biography
Gil Parrondo (full name Gil Parrondo y Rico-Villademoros) was a Spanish art director, set decorator and production designer. Born in Luarca, Asturias, in 1921, he studied painting and architecture at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid before beginning his career in the Spanish film industry in the late 1930s and early 1950s, initially as an assistant to set decorator Sigfrido Burmann.
He worked on numerous international productions filmed in Spain, including art direction credits on Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Battle of Britain (1969). Parrondo shared Academy Awards for Best Art Direction for Patton (1970) and Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), both directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, and received a further nomination for Travels with My Aunt (1972). He maintained long collaborations with directors Richard Lester and José Luis Garci, for whom he designed several films and won multiple Goya Awards for art direction.
