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A onetime architecture student at Vienna University, Czechoslovakia-born art director Harry Horner became an assistant to Austrian theatrical impresario Max Reinhardt, working on such spectacular touring productions as The Eternal Road. Horner came to Hollywood in 1940 as an associate of the celebrated production designer William Cameron Menzies, earning his first screen credit for Our Town (1940). While in special services during World War II, he designed the all-serviceman theatrical pageant Winged Victory. Back in Hollywood, he earned Academy Awards for his work on The Heiress (1949) and The Hustler (1961), and received an Oscar nomination for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). He made his directorial bow with the Ida Lupino-Robert Ryan thriller Beware My Lovely; his later assignments included the 1952 Laura remake Vicki, the propagandistic science fiction drama Red Planet Mars, and the "canned theatre" musical New Faces (1954). Harry Horner spent many of his last professional years producing and directing for television.