Harold Michelson, production designer on "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," has died following a long illness. He was 87.

Michelson, much admired in the industry, was a two-time Oscar nominee for his work on "The Motion Picture" and "Terms of Endearment," both Paramount films. He was credited as Production Designer on the Trek film and Art Director on "Terms." Michelson's career was recognized within the industry as he won both the Art Directors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 and the Hollywood Film Festival's Outstanding Achievement in Production Design award in 2002, according to today's Hollywood Reporter.

Michelson's career as an illustrator included work on classics such as "The Ten Commandments," "Ben-Hur," "Cleopatra," "The Graduate," and "The Apartment" just to name a few.

Born in New York, Michelson served in the Air Force during World War II. He flew over 40 missions to Germany as a bombadier/navigator. It was soon after the war that Michelson began his career as an illustrator. His early Hollywood days saw him at Columbia Pictures, followed by stints at Paramount and later at MGM/UA. Over the course of his film career, Michelson has been credited as illustrator, storyboard artist, production designer, creative director and even continuity consultant.

Michelson is survived by his wife, Lillian Michelson; his three sons Alan, Eric and Dennis; and two grandchildren, Luca and Romeo.

A memorial service was held today at Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills.

In 1998, Mike Okuda, Denise Okuda and Doug Drexler interviewed the late Matt Jeffries, the Original Series production designer. What follows is a Jeffries anecdote about Harold ("Hal") Michelson":

"Hal [Michelson] and I were old friends. I went over to another studio as supervising art director to do thirteen pilots. And we got Hal in to do the cowboys. I don't remember, he went over to look at a hospital set. Somebody wanted to show it off. Anyway, the staircase collapsed, and Hal really shattered an ankle. He still uses a cane, and has never gotten better. But if I remember correctly, there were about six more episodes of that series to go. And I did them, and we didn't change Hal's credit, and we never put in to payroll anything that Hal wasn't there. But I went ahead and did the things, and then the studio found out about it and all hell broke loose. And that terminated my job over there as supervising art director. Which was just fine with me."