Pereira was born in
Chicago,
Illinois, the brother of
William Pereira and son of Sarah (Friedberg) and Saul Pereira. He was educated at the
University of Illinois, after which he started his career in theater design before moving to Los Angeles , where he worked as a unit
art director for
Paramount Studios. From the 1940s through the 1960s, Pereira worked on more than 200 films as an
art director and
production designer. In 1944, he art designed
Double Indemnity, widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. By 1950, Pereira was supervising art director, where he remained until the late 1960s, when Paramount was reorganized by
Gulf+Western. During this time, he worked on several notable films, including
Shane,
Academy Award for Best Picture winning
The Greatest Show on Earth, almost every important
Alfred Hitchcock film, and
The Rose Tattoo, for which he won the Academy Award for best art direction for a black and white film. In total, Pereira was nominated for 23 Academy Awards throughout his career and he also served alongside
Earl Hedrick as
artistic director of the TV series
Bonanza. Pereira also worked occasionally as an architect. He began his architecture career in Chicago, where he partnered with
his brother in 1931. Together, they worked on Esquire Theatre son of
Charles S. Dewey. Pereira left the partnership , at which point he collaborated with
Robert Law Weed and Edwin T. Reeder on Beach Theatre in
Miami, Florida. He died in
Los Angeles,
California. ==References==