Born in New York City, Frederick Fox was educated at two
boarding schools in his childhood:
Storm King School and
Phillips Exeter Academy; graduating from the latter institution in 1928. He then studied at
Yale University where he graduated in 1932, and then at the
National Academy of Design where he earned at artist diploma in 1933. He began his career as a set designer in
summer stock theatre in
Ivoryton, Connecticut in the 1930s prior to beginning a prolific career as a designer of mainly sets but also lights and costumes on
Broadway. Fox began his career on Broadway designing the sets for the 1937 play
Farewell Summer. He worked as a designer for close to 100 stage works on Broadway; including
Johnny Belinda (1940),
Junior Miss (1941),
The Doughgirls (1942),
The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1943),
Anna Lucasta (1944),
Dear Ruth (1944),
Make Mine Manhattan (1948),
Light Up the Sky (1948), and
The Seven Year Itch (1952) among many others. In 1951 he won a
Donaldson Award for his sets for
Darkness at Noon. In addition to his work designing sets for the stage, Fox designed the interiors to several well known restaurants and consulted on designs used at the
Honolulu International Airport and the
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. On television he was the art director for
Max Liebman Spectaculars (1954),
Satins and Spurs (1954), the 1954 live televised broadcast of
Lady in the Dark, and the 1955 television special
Babes in Toyland starring
Barbara Cook. He also designed sets for
Admiral Broadway Revue (1949) and
Your Show of Shows (1950–1956). Fox died at the age 81 in
Englewood, New Jersey. ==References==