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Kjae Boyd Leslie, a skilled Hollywood scene painter who was noted for creating magical set backdrops at Pioneer Theatre Company, has passed away. He was 91.

Leslie, a Salt Lake City native, was a father of three and veteran of the U.S. Marines. In the 1960s, he had the rare opportunity to paints sets for the Broadway debut of "Camelot," and then reprise his work for the later Hollywood film. Over the years, he painted sets for scores of films while he lived in Los Angeles, recalls friend and colleague George Maxwell, Pioneer Theatre Company's resident set designer.

After moving back to Utah in 1984, Leslie wandered up to the Salt Lake theater's back door and asked casually if they needed any painting help, recalls Dave Deike, then the theater's technical director.

He was immediately set to work on the company's production of "Peter Pan," which was a bit behind schedule. His painting skills were "immediately obvious," Deike says. When a job opened the theater hired him as scene painter, where he earned an informal nickname as "the sky king" and went on to mentor younger painters. On Facebook, a former colleague noted how many times he had stood outside, admiring the sunset and the play of the light on the clouds, thinking it looked like Kjae had painted it.

He was particularly adept at transitions of colors in sunsets and sunrises. "He had a very light hand," says Maxwell, and his sky scenes "were kind of magical."

Maxwell remembers the 2004 production of "Beauty and the Beast," when a short in the theater's electrical wiring during a technical rehearsal shredded Leslie's village backdrop, just three days before the show's opening. The bottom was cut off, and then the top was pasted onto one of the sky backdrops Leslie had created for "Peter Pan," and the show opened without a hitch.

Even after he officially retired, Leslie continued painting theatrical sets into his 80s, earning his last credits for the sets of "The Philadelphia Story" in 2013. His artistic talents were particularly showcased by the theater's large-scale productions of musicals that might have as many as six backdrops, such as "Oklahoma!" or "South Pacific," Deike says.

Deike, who shared Leslie's other great love, golf, called the artist "a really vibrant man," noted for his kindness as well as his humility. "It's really hard work painting a big backdrop like that," says Deike, describing the canvases as 50 feet wide and 30 feet tall. "Just to lay in the base color takes about five gallons of paint. Imagine hauling that around and wielding a brush when you're 80 years old."

Funeral services will held on Saturday, Jan. 14 at noon at the Murray First Ward LDS meetinghouse, 755 E. 3 Fountains Drive, Murray A viewing will be held at the church house from 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., according to the family's obituary.