William Ladd Skinner (born 1 August 1949; age 75) is an art director and set designer who worked as set designer on Star Trek Nemesis.
Skinner graduated from William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles in 1967 and earned his BFA in Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut in 1972.
He started to work as set designer in the 1970s on projects such as Winter Kill (1974, with Tim O'Connor, Lawrence Pressman, and Eugene Roche), Uptown Saturday Night (1974, makeup by Monty Westmore), New York, New York (1977, working with Alan Sims and Richard McKenzie), A Piece of the Action (1977, with Marc Lawrence and Karole Selmon),The Choirboys (1977), Coma (1978, with Geneviève Bujold, Vaughn Armstrong, and Mary Mascari), The China Syndrome (1978), and 1941 (1979, working with Dan Gluck).
In the 1980s, Skinner worked as set designer on Raise the Titanic (1980, cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti and set decoration by Mickey S. Michaels), Heaven's Gate (1980, working with Nancy Mickelberry), Stir Crazy (1980), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981), Blade Runner (1982, set decoration by Linda DeScenna and Leslie Frankenheimer and costume design by Michael Kaplan), The Ice Pirates (1984, cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti and set decoration by John M. Dwyer), 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984, working with Syd Mead, Greg Papalia, and Gregory Pickrell), The River (1984), Nothing in Common (1986), and Lock Up (1989, working with Kurt V. Hulett).
Skinner also worked as set decorator on Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985, music by Jerry Goldsmith), as art director on Rocky IV (1985, film editing by John W. Wheeler and casting by Amanda Mackey Johnson), Cobra (1986), and Over the Top (1987, casting by Ron Surma), and as supervising art director on Leviathan (1989, starring Peter Weller and Meg Foster and music by Jerry Goldsmith).
In the 1990s, he worked as art director on Dances with Wolves (1990, film editing by William Hoy), Oscar (1991), Brain Donors (1992), The Bodyguard (1992, starring Bill Cobbs and Mike Starr), Little Giants (1994), Pontiac Moon (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), Eraser (1996, starring Vanessa Williams), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), and Godzilla (1998, casting by April Webster and art direction by Robert Woodruff).
In addition, Skinner worked as production designer on On Deadly Ground (1994, music by Basil Poledouris), as set designer on Going Under (1991), and as Los Angeles unit art director on The Peacemaker (1997).
Further credits as art director in the 2000s include Pearl Harbor (2001), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), Rollerball (2002), Timeline (2003, music by Brian Tyler), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), Idiocracy (2006), Mr. Brooks (2007), I Am Legend (2007, screenplay and produced by Akiva Goldsman, co-produced by Tracy Tormé, executive produced by Dana Goldberg, and costume design by Michael Kaplan), and Meet the Spartans (2008).
Skinner also worked as production designer on U-571 (2000, art direction by Robert Woodruff) and on Alien Hunter (2003, casting by Mary Jo Slater). For his work as art director on Public Enemies in 2009, Skinner earned a Satellite Award nomination in the category Best Art Direction & Production Design in 2009 and an Art Director's Guild Excellence in Production Design Award nomination in the category Period Film in 2010. He shared both nominations with production designer Nathan Crowley. Skinner previously earned Art Director's Guild Excellence in Production Design Award nominations in the category Fantasy Film in 2004, 2007, and 2008 for his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Among his fellow nominees are Robert Woodruff and Donald B. Woodruff.
More recent work as art director include Gulliver's Travels (2010), Tron: Legacy (2010, cinematography by Claudio Miranda), Battleship (2012, art direction by Aaron Haye), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012, executive produced by Stan Lee, music by James Horner, and art direction by Michael E. Goldman), This Is the End (2013), Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), the pilot episodes of Salem (2014, starring Kevin Tighe and created, written, and executive produced by Brannon Braga) and Scorpion (2014, directed and executive produced by Justin Lin, executive produced by Heather Kadin, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci, co-produced by April Nocifora, music by Brian Tyler, editing by Dylan Highsmith and Steven Sprung, and costume design by Sanja Milkovic Hays), The Finest Hours (2016), and Warcraft (2016, art direction by Dan Hermansen).
Skinner worked as production designer on Gimme Shelter (2013) and as set designer on Free State of Jones (2016) and the comedy The House (2017, working with Chris Arnold).
Most recently, Skinner worked as art director and set designer on Alita: Battle Angel (2018).