Peter Proud

Peter Proud was a British film art director. He made a major contribution to wartime camouflage and deception operations in the Western Desert, especially in the siege of Tobruk.

Early career

In 1928, Proud left school at age 15 and started work at the Elstree film studios on Alfred Hitchcock films including Murder! and Rich and Strange. In 1932, he joined Gaumont British as assistant designer to Alfred Junge. The British Film Institute's Raymond Durgnat described him as an "ace production designer".
In 1935, he moved to Gainsborough Pictures, and in 1936, he became an art director at Warner Bros., where he worked on Michael Powell's film Something Always Happens.

Wartime camouflage

Proud worked as a camouflage officer under Geoffrey Barkas in the Western Desert in the Second World War, and was responsible for effective camouflage and deception in the Siege of Tobruk. With Steven Sykes, he created the dummy port at Ras al Hilal to divert enemy attention from the Eighth Army's vital supply ports. He was a creative camoufleur, inventing the "Net Gun Pit", a quickly-erected structure of netting and canvas, that from the air closely resembled an anti-aircraft gun in a sandbagged pit.

Post-war

After the war, Proud ran his own production company. He worked on the TV series The Buccaneers and The Adventures of Robin Hood at Nettlefold Studios.

Selected filmography

Proud worked, mainly as art director, on films including:

Murder!
Orders is Orders
My Old Dutch
Waltzes from Vienna
Something Always Happens
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Man of the Moment
The Black Mask
It's in the Bag
Educated Evans
Don't Get Me Wrong
Everything Happens to Me
They Drive by Night
The Return of Carol Deane
Many Tanks Mr. Atkins
Green for Danger
The Woman in the Hall
For Them That Trespass
Nowhere to Go
Desert Mice
The League of Gentlemen
The Guilty Party
It's All Over Town
Saturday Night Out
Fanatic
Theatre of Death
''The Naked Runner''