Duell was born on a farm in
Russell County, Kansas, moved with his family to
Los Angeles, California in 1912, and died of a stroke in
Los Angeles, California. He received screen credit for his work on 38 films, among them
Ninotchka (1939),
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946),
Intruder in the Dust (1949), and ''
Singin' in the Rain (1952). Additionally he worked on a number of motion pictures without film credit, among them The Wizard of Oz'', 1939. He retired from MGM in 1959. During most of his career at MGM, Duell maintained an outside architectural practice and designed residential and commercial buildings in Southern California. Notable among his designs during this period is
Casa de Cadillac, a car dealership in
Sherman Oaks built in 1948 which is now considered a prime example of
Googie architecture.
Theme park design Following his departure from MGM in 1959, he joined Marco Engineering, founded by
C. V. Wood, who had supervised the construction of
Disneyland; at Marco, Duell collaborated with Wood and Wade Rubottom in the design of
Freedomland U.S.A. in
The Bronx, the first of many theme parks he would design. The following year, Duell left Marco Engineering and established R. Duell and Associates with his wife Rachel, a Santa Monica-based architectural practice which specialized in the design of theme parks. Marrying traditional architecture with stagecraft, the firm designed many theme parks in America. Most of the parks include what is now known as the
Duell loop, first implemented at
Six Flags Over Texas; the primary guest path forms a complete circuit through the park so visitors can visit each attraction. The Duell office employed the talents of a number of former motion picture art directors and theme park designers, among them Robert H Branham, Leroy Coleman,
John DeCuir, John DeCuir, Jr., Roger Duell, Paul Saunders, Ira West, Harry Webster, Art Pieper, and
Paul Groesse. Duell was inducted into the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Hall of Fame in 1993. ==Selected filmography==