Barbara Ling, the production designer who turned back time and won an Oscar for re-creating 1969 Los Angeles for Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, has died. She was 73.

Ling died Thursday in Santa Barbara after a battle with cancer, a spokesperson for WME announced.

A Los Angeles native, Ling also tooled around her hometown for the present-day, Michael Douglas-starring Falling Down (1993), then reteamed with director Joel Schumacher to set up the fictional Gotham City for Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997).

In a career that spanned more than four decades, Ling served as the production designer on two 1991 classics, Oliver Stone’s The Doors and Jon Avnet’s Fried Green Tomatoes, on which she also was an associate producer.

She also teamed with director Scott Hicks on Hearts in Atlantis (2001), No Reservations (2007), The Lucky One (2012) and Fallen (2016).

Most recently, she worked on Marc Forster’s A Man Called Otto (2022), starring Tom Hanks, and on the blockbuster biopic Michael (2026), directed by Antoine Fuqua.

On Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Ling shared the Oscar for best production design with set decorator Nancy Haigh; the two had worked together once before, on the 1988 film Checking Out.

Tarantino’s “main thing from the moment we sat down was, ‘I want this to be real. I want to see. I want to smell and I feel that Hollywood. I don’t want to do green screen over here or have the digital interpretation. Let’s really change the billboards, and let’s put the real facades back on,’” Ling said in a 2019 interview.

“That is, to me, very exciting. It’s something we don’t do much of anymore. I knew that what he wanted was to encompass himself and the actors into an environment that you could feel is real. You’re not just staring at something that’s a piece of green screen where we piece together later. That was the starting ground of this.

“I had to go out and figure out where I could attach real things to. It was quite an engineering feat to do, particularly on Hollywood Boulevard, to say, ‘I want the Pussycat Theater back.’ To build those marquees, it’s added weight. These are old and fragile buildings that we were working with. We had to also work with engineers to make sure we weren’t going to pull the facade off once we rebuilt the old signs. It was laborious but well worth it.

“The night of the first shoot when all the neon lit up and the period cars came out and [Arianne Phillips’] costumes were out there, you absolutely believed you were in 1969 because everything was real. It was a movie filming a real street. We pretty much carried that theme through Westwood [to re-create the Bruin Theater] and everywhere we shot.”

After winning her Oscar, Ling lamented to reporters backstage that “L.A. is not a preservation city, never has been. Now there’s been a nonstop movement of apartment building and glass towers. … What we did will be impossible to do next year. It’s unfortunate. We hope this will bring some nostalgia back and stop things from being torn down.”

Born in August 1952, Ling began her career designing sets and lighting for more than 200 theater, opera and musical productions, including the 1981 HBO special The Pee-Wee Herman Show, taped at the Roxy in West Hollywood.

She made the leap to filmmaking when David Byrne enlisted her to design his directorial debut, True Stories (1986).

Her credits also included V.I. Warshawski (1991), With Honors (1994), Heaven (1987), Less Than Zero (1987) and Sydney Pollack’s Random Hearts (1999), among the films that demonstrated she was equally comfortable with period authenticity, contemporary realism and stylized fantasy.

Survivors include her wife, Lindsay, and their sons, Clay and Will. 

Don Iwerks, the former Disney executive who innovated several cinematic advancements during his career, has died. He was 96.

The Iwerks Entertainment co-founder died peacefully on Thursday at Ojai Community Memorial Care Center, “surrounded by the love of family and friends,” according to an obituary shared by his family.

“Those who knew Don remember not only his extraordinary accomplishments, but the quiet grace with which he achieved them,” the family said of Iwerks. “Like his father, he delighted in solving problems, sharing knowledge, and celebrating the successes of others. Humble, endlessly curious, and unfailingly optimistic, he believed every challenge held the possibility of a solution.”

They added, “Up to the end he was sketching new inventions, cheering on the Los Angeles Dodgers, and watching classic films. Mary Poppins remained especially close to his heart—a film whose optimism and enduring message that anything was possible perfectly reflected the way Don lived his life. … To the world, Don was an engineer, inventor, and Disney Legend. To those fortunate enough to know him, he was a devoted husband and father, a trusted mentor, a steadfast friend, and an eternal optimist.”

Born July 24, 1929 in Dallas, Texas, Iwerks grew up in Southern California, where his father, animator Ub Iwerks, became Walt Disney’s business parter, co-creating Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

In 1950, Don followed in his father’s footsteps when he began working at Walt Disney Studios’ Process Lab, shortly before he served for more than a year in Germany as a U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer during the Korean War.

Don returned to Disney in 1952, working alongside his father in the Studio Machine Shop to help develop cameras, optical printers and special effects systems for Disney films and theme parks, including the original Circle-Vision camera system, refinements to the sodium traveling matte process used in Mary Poppins (1964), and numerous projection technologies for Disney attractions around the world.

After 24 years, Don and fellow Disney exec Stan Kinsey co-founded Iwerks Entertainment in 1986, which became a global pioneer in giant-screen theaters, motion simulators and immersive 3D experiences worldwide.

In 1998, Don was awarded the Gordon E. Sawyer Award at the Oscars for his technical contributions to the motion picture industry. He and his father Ub were also honored with a dedicated Main Street, U.S.A. window in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort.

Don is survived by survived by wife Betty; son Larry; son John and wife Chris; documentarian daughter Leslie and great-nephew Mike, both of whom went on to work at The Walt Disney Company. Don was preceded in death by his daughter Tamara, “whom he loved deeply and carried in his heart always.”

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Community Memorial Continuing Care Center of Ojai and The Walt Disney Family Museum.

Oregon‘s attorney general has dropped a civil investigative demand for Paramount to turn over records related to its efforts to secure federal approval for its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, the company said on Friday.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield also had asked a state circuit court judge to order Paramount to turn over the materials and to delay Paramount’s closing of its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by 60 days so the documents could be reviewed. A hearing has been scheduled for Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

A Paramount spokesperson said, “We are pleased that the Oregon Attorney General has withdrawn its motion to delay this transaction. It was the right decision and avoids an unwarranted effort to delay a lawful, pro-competitive merger.

“Antitrust authorities around the world have carefully reviewed this transaction, clearing it or concluding that it does not violate any competition laws. That regulatory record underscores what the facts, the law and the economics make clear: this transaction will create a stronger challenger to dominant global streaming and technology platforms, expand consumer choice, increase investment in premium content and theatrical distribution, and create more opportunities for creators and workers. We look forward to completing the transaction and delivering those benefits.”

A spokesperson for Rayfield did not immediately return a request for comment.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and other state attorneys general are said to be considering a legal challenge to the transaction.

Rayfield sought Paramount records of lobbying of federal officials, as well as its role in a statement that the DOJ released in support of the transaction. The attorney general also sought documents “related to the formulation and execution of lobbying strategies aimed at obtaining regulatory approval of the proposed merger, which Respond as internally named ‘Project Warrior.’”

In a court filing, Paramount has objected to the document requests, arguing, among other things, that they impose “burdens and demands which are disproportionate” to the Oregon investigation and are “of such marginal relevance that the value of any materials sought is outweighed by the burden imposed on Paramount in having to provide such information.”

“Lobbying activities and related communications are wholly irrelevant to whether the proposed acquisition ‘violates Oregon’s antitrust laws,’” the company’s legal team wrote.