Early life and education
Stephen Dane was born into a Hollywood family. His father was a publicity agent for 20th Century Fox, and his mother was the Academy Award-winning costume designer Dorothy Jeakins, whose Oscar-winning credits include Joan of Arc (1948), Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Night of the Iguana (1964).2
Dane graduated from University High School in West Los Angeles in 1959, then enrolled at Santa Monica City College. While studying, he worked part-time at Life magazine and took illustration classes with Douglas Aircraft at Santa Monica Airport, where he learned to draw three-dimensional isometrics and exploded-view technical diagrams of parts and equipment. He graduated from Santa Monica City College in 1961. He went on to major in Literature at Bard College, graduating in 1966, and later completed a degree in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.
Career
Dane worked as an architect in San Francisco and Los Angeles for seven years beginning in September 1969, until the 1973 recession slowed construction work. An opportunity arose at Universal Studios, which was hiring people with period architectural design skills for its theme park expansion; Dane took the job and transitioned fully into the film industry, working as both a Set Designer and Art Director through the late 1970s and 1980s.
His most prominent pre-Ghostbusters credit was as Assistant Art Director on Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982), where he supervised key prop design, action prop design, build supervision, vehicle design, and construction supervision.3 He later participated in the documentary Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner (2007), reflecting on his work on that film.3
Other credits include Strange Brew (1983), Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (1983), Brainstorm (1983), and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), where he helped design the film's signature Jet Car as Art Director alongside production designer Michael Riva. He appeared in Buckaroo Banzai Declassified (2002) discussing that work.3 Later credits include My Science Project (1985), America 3000 (1986), Spaceballs (1987), and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) as a Set Designer.3 Dane retired from film work in 2004 following Ladder 49, shot in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2008 he took on an Art Director role for a theme park project planned for Abu Dhabi. He continued working on residential architectural and landscape design projects until his death.
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters (1984)
Director Ivan Reitman had six weeks to have the Ectomobile built and ready for the New York location shoot. His search for a consultant led him to Stephen Dane, who came to the interview with his portfolio and was hired on the spot.4
Starting on September 22, 1983, Dane began taking descriptions from Reitman and references in the script, drawing up concepts at home near The Burbank Studios. He would return the next day, receive feedback, buy parts, and build a rough mock-up, iterating in rapid cycles over several days. One of the first props he worked on was the Particle Thrower mock-up.4
The design and build processes soon ran in parallel. For the Proton Pack, Dane based his rough sketches on flamethrowers he recalled from military magazines, adapting a pack frame he purchased on October 6 from California Surplus on Santa Monica and Vine into a functional backpack concept. Dane and Reitman refined the design together, and the approved working design then went to the prop builders, with Dane continuing to guide construction and source additional parts.4
On October 5, 1983, Dane turned his attention to Ecto-1. He visited the ambulance sitting in the backlot at The Burbank Studios, took reference photos and measurements, and produced detailed isometric drawings of the vehicle and its roof rack, along with multiple views and elevations of the exterior and interior. After Reitman approved the design, studio painters and prop makers at The Burbank Studios Mill executed the paint job and detailing under Dane's direct supervision. The prop makers also repaired the ambulance to driving condition, cleaned the interior, and installed equipment.4
On October 17, Dane purchased materials for the Ghost Trap mock-up. By October 19, when Ecto-1 shipped to New York, the ambulance was roughly half finished. It was fully painted but still lacked the roof rack, which Dane completed and shipped separately; once received in New York, the rack was attached and the car was finished with one to two days of final touches, ready for filming.4
On October 27, Dane flew to New York and worked on-call during principal photography from October 28 to November 8, finishing prop work and addressing new design needs that arose on set.4
A small on-camera cameo resulted from the shoot: while walking west on Park Row toward Broadway during filming at New York City Hall, Dane was passed by Ecto-1 being repositioned for a shot. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson all waved at him from the car, and he waved back.4
Dane's Ghostbusters I credits (under "Hardware Consultants") covered:
- Ecto-1 designs
- Proton Pack designs
- Particle Thrower designs
- Trap designs
- G.E.V. Meter designs (contributing to the development of the PKE Meter)
Ghostbusters II (1989)
On Ghostbusters II, Dane returned to the production in an uncredited capacity. He designed the Giga Meter, the Slime Scoop, and the Slime Blower, and revised the Proton Packs and Traps for the sequel. He also redesigned Ecto-1 into the Ecto-1a configuration. As on the first film, he worked from script references and conversations with Reitman. Notably, for several of the new props he incorporated leftover warning labels and graphic symbols from materials he had produced during his work on Blade Runner.
Death
Stephen Dane died on April 21, 2016, in Studio City, California, at the age of 74.1 His passing was widely noted within the Ghostbusters prop-building and film community.5
Stephen Dane's technical drawings of the Ectomobile, Proton Pack, and supporting props are among the most reproduced reference documents in the GBFans.com prop-building community. His isometric sketches appear as in-universe Easter eggs in the IDW comics: a schematic is visible on Egon's board in Ghostbusters Volume 2 #9, and his Ecto-1 sketches and pack rack drawings appear on background surfaces in Ghostbusters: Get Real #1 and #2. GBFans.com community members posted tributes in a dedicated forum thread following the announcement of his death in April 2016.5
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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IMDb, "Stephen Dane" (nm0199344), https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0199344/, accessed 2026-06-13. Birth: August 3, 1941, Los Angeles, California. Death: April 21, 2016, Studio City, California.
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"Dorothy Jeakins," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Jeakins. Confirms Jeakins (January 11, 1914 -- November 21, 1995) as Stephen Dane's mother; lists three Academy Award wins: Joan of Arc (1948, shared with Barbara Karinska), Samson and Delilah (1949, shared with Edith Head), and The Night of the Iguana (1964).
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The Movie Database (TMDB), "Stephen Dane" (person/1404757), https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1404757-stephen-dane, accessed 2026-06-13. Lists art department and art director credits including Blade Runner (1982), Strange Brew (1983), Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (1983), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), My Science Project (1985), America 3000 (1986), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) as Set Designer, and documentary appearances in Buckaroo Banzai Declassified (2002) and Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner (2007).
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Beyond the Marquee, "The GHOSTBUSTERS Ecto-1 Car and Designer Stephen Dane," Beyond the Marquee web-series, Episode 70 (September 18, 2014). YouTube mirror: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY-SnTnxvPY. Primary source video interview with Dane covering the full Ghostbusters prop design timeline including specific dates, the California Surplus pack frame purchase, the Burbank Studios mill work, the NY location shoot cameo, and his overall role as Hardware Consultant.
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GBFans.com forum, "Ecto-1 designer Stephen Dane has passed away" (thread t=41321), https://www.gbfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41321, accessed 2026-06-13. Community tribute thread, announced May 10, 2016; 18 posts from GBFans.com prop builders and fans.
