David Snyder
American art director

David L. Snyder (born September 22, 1944) is an American film and television production designer. He has worked as an art director, producer, and assistant director on films including Blade Runner, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, The Whole Nine Yards, and the television programs Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Battlestar Galactica. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on Blade Runner at the 55th Academy Awards. The film won the BAFTA for Production Design in 1983.
Career
Snyder was born in Buffalo, New York and attended the Technical High School, where he developed an interest in film work, creating the 1959 Tech High Musical Revue. Twenty years later, he became the assistant art director for the 50th Academy Awards, having spent time as an architectural designer, toy designer and musician. Universal Studios later appointed Snyder as art director for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica and The Incredible Hulk. In 1982, Snyder worked with Ridley Scott on Blade Runner, for which he shared an Academy Award nomination with production designer Lawrence G. Paull.
Snyder has worked on more than 30 films, and is a member of The Directors Guild of America, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Art Directors Guild.
Personal life
Snyder married his second wife, actress Terry Finn, on August 1, 1990, and the couple have a son Finn Henry.
The public source identifies “David Snyder” as american art director. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around David, Snyder and American.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2856358. VIAF identifies the subject as 305236833. The Library of Congress control number is no2013091273. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1983, 1959 and 1982.
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This entry incorporates text from “David Snyder” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.