Famed Stratford Festival designer Desmond Heeley has passed away.

The 85-year-old died in New York City Friday.

“Desmond played a formative role with the festival second only to that of our founding designer, his friend and mentor Tanya Moiseiwitsch,” says festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino.

“Throughout a stellar international career that ranged from the Metropolitan Opera in New York to La Scala in Milan, from The Old Vic to Broadway, he treated the Stratford Festival above all as his true artistic home.”

He began his career at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he worked with Peter Brook on productions including Titus Andronicus with Sir Laurence Olivier.

He was soon designing for opera and ballet, as well as for theatre.

Heeley designed about 40 productions for the festival, beginning with the 1957 production of Hamlet, starring Christopher Plummer.

He also designed Cyrano de Bergerac (1962), The Duchess of Malfi (1971), Amadeus (1995 and 1996), London Assurance (2006), andCamelot (1997).

His last production for the festival was in 2009, The Importance of Being Earnest.

The festival is dedicated this season’s production of The Hypochondriac will be to his memory.