John Michael Stringer was born in Singapore and raised in Britain. He attended Selwyn College Cambridge before joining the RAF during World War ll and on demob. joined the staff of art director Norman Arnold. He quickly achieved fame as a film production designer and worked on some 50 films from 1953 to the 1990’s. including, The Sundowners, 1960, 633 Squadron, 1964, Inspector Clouseau, 1968, and The Fiddler on the Roof, 1971 (which merited an Oscar nomination) and many others. He was a painter and book illustrator and from 1992 he had a 5 year contract with the American art publishers Collectors Editions and exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Tokyo and in 1996 had a solo show at Lewes Gallery.