Michael Hampton of Amagansett Dies June 6

Artist, advertising creative director, and small-scale home developer on the East End, Michael Hampton died comfort-ably in his Amagansett home on June 6. The cause was a rare and aggressive cancer, liposarcoma.

Born in Brooklyn in 1941, Michael’s was a New Yorker’s life. He attended Pratt Institute where he met the future art director of Interview Magazine, Richard Bernstein. The pals became fixtures in the 1960s Greenwich Village scene. Michael created artwork for Café Chino, the cradle of off Broadway, and for a young Alvin Ailey dance theater. Michael’s Bowery loft was the location of Andy Warhol’s film, “The Bed”.

While working in Boston after college, Michael met George Stambolian, a godfather of the gay literary movement, with whom he was partnered until Stambolian’s death from AIDS in 1991. Together they purchased a former fisherman’s shack on Bluff Road in Amagansett in 1974. There Michael would host, and George would nurture the young writers.

In the mid-1960’s, Michael’s New York advertising career took off at the height of the “Mad Men” days. His campaigns for such products as Birdseye, TWA and Kentucky Fried Chicken garnered him awards. He was “an island of calm and a bastion of creativity” at the advertising firm, Young & Rubicam.

Hampton became a discriminating collector. His photography collection included works from Irving Duchenne de Boulogne to Lucas Samaras; his art glass works included museum quality pieces by Carlo Scarpa. His developed eye also turned to Americana furniture, which filled his beachside home.

Michael retired early from advertising to, as he would say with his bone-dry wit, “get a puppy”. He had three over time, who he loved to see running on Atlantic Beach or jumping into the backyard pool. He also tended to his jewel seaside garden and was an avid theatre and opera goer.

Starting in the late 1990’s, Hampton’s design sensibility took the next step as he renovated several homes on the East End in collaboration with architects Richard Lear and James D’Auria and contractor, Don Matheson. He was ahead of the curve in pioneering several neighborhoods.

In his later years, Michael divided his time between Miami Beach and Amagansett.

Michael is survived by his brother, Richard Hampton, and his husband and partner of 34 years, Carlos Sandoval.