Karen Cynthia “K.C.” Fox passed away peacefully at her home in the Hollywood Hills with her loving family at her side. She was preceded in death by her parents Bob and Barbara Scheibel, and she leaves behind her son Dylan Fox (Emma Stone), brothers Dean (Susie McDaniel) and Ian Scheibel (Margo Beylen) and goddaughter Natalia (Steve) Abrams.
A child of Los Angeles, K.C. acquired a B.A. at CSUN in Commercial Recreation and Tourism and worked as a card dealer, ski instructor and more before finding her way to the industry that would define her career. In 1980, K.C.’s skill as a seamstress secured her a wardrobe position on Take This Job and Shove It, marking the start of over 40 years in the entertainment industry. As a Set Decorator, K.C. excelled at the artistic and logistical demands of movie making, able to intuitively understand character aesthetics, navigate the whims of mercurial directors and find or fashion furnishings at speed and at scale. K.C.’s filmography included Speed, Bowfinger, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Legally Blonde II, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and seven seasons of Criminal Minds, earning her two Excellence in Production Design awards from the Art Director’s Guild and multiple features in Architectural Digest. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Set Decorators Society of America, of which she was a founding member, and was a voting member of the Academy of Motion Pictures. Though infamous for her take-no-prisoners approach to set decoration, she was also a fierce defender of her crews and a mentor to many in the industry.
K.C. married Bob Fox on April 1, 1984. Though they would ultimately divorce, their happy years together included the birth of their son Dylan. A devoted mother, K.C. provided for her family both financially and emotionally; a “patron extraordinaire” of Wonderland Elementary’s Art Cadre program, she encouraged Dylan’s intellectual and artistic pursuits throughout his youth. The two remained close even after Dylan left for UC Berkeley and established his own life in the Bay Area.
K.C.’s childhood family adventures on a year-long European campervan sabbatical nurtured a lifelong wanderlust. Her journeys extended from hiking in Death Valley, to canoeing in Sumatra, to sunbathing in Spain. She and Dylan traveled to Edinburgh and Prague for the Fringe Festival and to Oaxaca for the Noche de Rábanos, and she spent much of her retirement globetrotting to visit her many friends. K.C.’s experiences abroad fueled her artistry, including stained glass, oil painting and mosaics, which she generously shared with family and friends. A keen collector and self-described “tchotchke whisperer”, K.C.’s home represented her in its color, humor and joy.
In her final months, K.C. faced the specter of pancreatic cancer, but she did not do it alone. Her first instinct on getting the news was to party, and her “Awake Wake” saw hundreds of friends fly from across the world to celebrate with her. Over the following months, K.C.’s goddaughter Natalia and her husband Steve moved in with K.C. and supported her through the pain and uncertainty of chemotherapy and cancer; while Dean, Ian, Dylan, their spouses, and many more friends visited often to brighten her days and help put her affairs in order.
K.C.’s creativity, industry leadership, sense of adventure, and charitable spirit made the world a more beautiful and meaningful place. Her playfulness, kindness, loyalty, and compassion will be missed - along with the faint cloud of marijuana smoke she left in her wake.
The above was published in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, September 5, 2024. Read it on Legacy.com
Read obituaries from other sources:
Variety: KC Fox, ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ and ‘Speed’ Set Decorator, Dies at 70
Deadline: K.C. Fox Dies: Emmy-Nominated Set Decorator Was 70
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