Edith Head | |
|---|---|
 Edith Head in 1976 | |
| Born | Edith Claire Posener[1] (1897-10-28)October 28, 1897 |
| Died | October 24, 1981(1981-10-24) (aged 83) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park,Glendale, California |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley(B.A., 1919) Stanford University(M.A., 1920) |
| Occupation | Costume Designer |
| Years active | 1924–1981 |
| Known for | Costume Designer atParamount Pictures andUniversal Pictures |
| Spouses | |
| Awards | Academy Award for Best Costume Design x 8 |
Edith Claire Head (née Posener;[1] October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American filmcostume designer. She received a record 35 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design and won a record eight times, making her both the most honored and most nominated woman in the Academy's history.[3] Head is considered one of the greatest and most influential costume designers in film history.
Born and raised in California, Head started her career as a Spanish teacher, but was interested in design.[4] After studying at theChouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles,[4] Head was hired as a costume sketch artist atParamount Pictures in 1923.[3] She won acclaim for her design ofDorothy Lamour’s trademarksarong in the 1936 filmThe Jungle Princess,[3] and became a household name after the Academy Award for Best Costume Design was created in 1948. Head was considered exceptional for her close working relationships with her subjects, with whom she consulted extensively; these included virtually every top female star in Hollywood.
Head worked at Paramount for 44 years. In 1967, the company declined to renew her contract, and she was invited byAlfred Hitchcock to joinUniversal Pictures. There she earned her eighth and final Academy Award for her work onThe Sting in 1973.[5]
She was bornEdith Claire Posener inSan Bernardino, California, the daughter ofJewish parents, Max Posener and Anna E. Levy. Her father, born in January 1858, was a naturalized American citizen from Germany,[citation needed] who came to the United States in 1876. Her mother was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1875, the daughter of an Austrian father and a Bavarian mother.[citation needed] Max and Anna married in 1895, according to the 1900 United States Federal Census records. Just before Edith's birth, Max Posener opened a smallhaberdashery in San Bernardino, which failed within a year.
The marriage did not survive. In 1905, Anna remarried, this time to mining engineer Frank Spare, originally fromPennsylvania. The family moved frequently as Spare's jobs moved. The only place Head could later recall living during her early years wasSearchlight, Nevada. Frank and Anna Spare passed Edith off as their child. As Frank Spare was a Catholic, Edith ostensibly became one as well.[6]
In 1919, Edith received a Bachelor of Arts degree in letters and sciences with honors in French from theUniversity of California, Berkeley, and in 1920 earned a Master of Arts degree in romance languages fromStanford University.[7]
She became a language teacher with her first position as a replacement atThe Bishop's School inLa Jolla teaching French. After one year, she took a position teaching Spanish at theHollywood School for Girls. Wanting a slightly higher salary, she told the school that she could also teach art, even though she had only briefly studied the discipline in high school.[8] To improve her drawing skills, at this point rudimentary, she took evening classes at theOtis Art Institute andChouinard Art College.[9]
On July 25, 1923, she married Charles Head, the brother of one of her Chouinard classmates, Betty Head. Although the marriage ended in divorce in 1938 after a number of years of separation, she continued to be known professionally as Edith Head until her death. In 1940 she married award-winning art directorWiard Ihnen, a marriage which lasted until his death in 1979.
In 1924, despite lacking art, design, and costume design experience, the 26-year-old Head was hired as a costume sketch artist atParamount Pictures. Later she admitted to "borrowing" other students' sketches for her job interview. She began designing costumes for silent films, commencing withThe Wanderer in 1925 and, by the 1930s, had established herself as one of Hollywood's leadingcostume designers. She worked at Paramount for 43 years until she went toUniversal Pictures on March 27, 1967, possibly prompted by her extensive work for directorAlfred Hitchcock, who had moved to Universal in 1960.
Head's marriage to set designerWiard Ihnen, on September 8, 1940, lasted until his death from prostate cancer in 1979. Over the course of her long career, she was nominated for 35Academy Awards, annually from 1949 (the first year that theOscar for Best Costume Design was awarded) through 1966, and won eight times – receiving more Oscars than any other woman.[10]
Although Head was featured in studio publicity from the mid-1920s, she was originally overshadowed by Paramount's lead designers, firstHoward Greer, thenTravis Banton. Head was instrumental in conspiring against Banton, and after his resignation in 1938 she became a high-profile designer in her own right. Her association with the "sarong" dress designed forDorothy Lamour inThe Hurricane (1937) made her well known among the general public, although Head was a more restrained designer than either Banton orAdrian. She gained public attention for the top mink-lined gown she created forGinger Rogers inLady in the Dark (1944), which caused much comment owing to the mood of wartime austerity. The establishment, in 1949, of the Academy Award for Costume Design further boosted her career, giving her a record-breaking run of Award nominations and wins, beginning with her nomination forThe Emperor Waltz.[11] Head and other film designers like Adrian became well known to the public.[12]
Head was known for her unique working style and, unlike many of her male contemporaries, usually consulted extensively with the female stars with whom she worked. As a result, she was a favorite among many of the leading female stars of the 1940s and 1950s, such asGinger Rogers,Bette Davis,Barbara Stanwyck,Jane Wyman,Rita Hayworth,Shirley MacLaine,Grace Kelly,Audrey Hepburn, andElizabeth Taylor. In fact, Head was frequently "loaned out" byParamount to other studios at the request of their female stars. She herself always dressed very plainly, preferring thick-framed glasses and conservative two-piece suits.[13]
In 1946, Head worked for the first time with director Alfred Hitchcock. They worked together on his spy filmNotorious. Head, who worked for Paramount, was loaned to Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) pictures to work with Hitchcock on this film. In this time period it was more often found that costume designers would design to reflect their own style. Head had a different outlook on this. She felt that it was more important to design pieces that reflected the character. During their time working on this movie, Head and Hitchcock found that they were like-minded and had the same bluntness in their careers and attitudes. The costumes she designed for this film reflected restraint and the need to blend in. This style suited what Hitchcock was looking for since he did not want the clothes to be the focal point. The two would go on to work together many more times.[14]
On February 3, 1955 (Season 5 Episode 21), Edith Head appeared as a contestant on theGroucho Marx quiz showYou Bet Your Life. She and her partner won a total of $1,540. Her winnings were donated to charity.[15]
Head also authored two books describing her career and design philosophy,The Dress Doctor (1959) andHow To Dress For Success (1967). These books were re-edited in 2008 and 2011, respectively.
In 1967, at the age of 70, she leftParamount Pictures and joinedUniversal Pictures, where she remained until her death in 1981.[16] By this point, Hollywood was rapidly changing from what it had been during Head's heyday in the 1930s-1940s. Studio-based production was giving way to outdoors and on-scene shooting, and many of the actresses from that era whom she worked with and knew intimately had retired or were working less. She thus turned more of her attention to TV, where some old friends such asOlivia de Havilland had begun working. She designed Endora's clothing onBewitched, and made a cameo appearance in 1973 on the detective seriesColumbo besideAnne Baxter, playing herself and displaying her Oscars to date. In 1974, Head received a final Oscar win for her work onThe Sting.
In the late 1970s Edith Head was asked to design a woman'suniform for theUnited States Coast Guard, because of the increasing number of women in the Coast Guard. Head called the assignment a highlight in her career and received theMeritorious Public Service Award for her efforts.[17] Her designs for a TV mini-series based on the novelLittle Women were well received. Her last film project was the black-and-white comedyDead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), starringSteve Martin andCarl Reiner, a job Head was chosen for because of her expertise on 1940s fashions. She modeled Martin and Reiner's outfits on classicfilm noir and the movie, released in theaters just after her death, was dedicated to her memory.
Head died on October 24, 1981, four days before her 84th birthday, frommyelofibrosis, an incurablebone marrow disease.[13] She is interred atForest Lawn Memorial Park inGlendale, California.[18]
Edith Head's star on theHollywood Walk of Fame, which she received in 1974, is located at 6504 Hollywood Boulevard.[19]
Among the actresses Edith Head designed for were:
Among the actors Edith Head designed for were:
Head received eightAcademy Awards for Best Costume Design, more than any other person, from a total of 35 nominations.[20]
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Best Costume Design – Color | The Emperor Waltz | Nominated |
| 1949 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | The Heiress | Won |
| 1950 | All About Eve | Won | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | Samson and Delilah | Won | |
| 1951 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | A Place in the Sun | Won |
| 1952 | Carrie | Nominated | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | The Greatest Show on Earth | Nominated | |
| 1953 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | Roman Holiday | Won |
| 1954 | Sabrina | Won | |
| 1955 | The Rose Tattoo | Nominated | |
| Best Costume Design – Color | To Catch a Thief | Nominated | |
| 1956 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | The Proud and Profane | Nominated |
| Best Costume Design – Color | The Ten Commandments | Nominated | |
| 1957 | Best Costume Design | Funny Face | Nominated |
| 1958 | The Buccaneer | Nominated | |
| 1959 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | Career | Nominated |
| Best Costume Design – Color | The Five Pennies | Nominated | |
| 1960 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | The Facts of Life | Won |
| Best Costume Design – Color | Pepe | Nominated | |
| 1961 | Pocketful of Miracles | Nominated | |
| 1962 | Costume Design – Black & White | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance | Nominated |
| Best Costume Design – Color | My Geisha | Nominated | |
| 1963 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | Love with the Proper Stranger | Nominated |
| Wives and Lovers | Nominated | ||
| Best Costume Design – Color | A New Kind of Love | Nominated | |
| 1964 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | A House Is Not a Home | Nominated |
| Best Costume Design – Color | What a Way to Go! | Nominated | |
| 1965 | Best Costume Design – Black & White | The Slender Thread | Nominated |
| Best Costume Design – Color | Inside Daisy Clover | Nominated | |
| 1966 | The Oscar | Nominated | |
| 1969 | Best Costume Design | Sweet Charity | Nominated |
| 1970 | Airport | Nominated | |
| 1973 | The Sting | Won | |
| 1975 | The Man Who Would Be King | Nominated | |
| 1977 | Airport '77 | Nominated |
Head made a brief appearance inColumbo: Requiem for a Falling Star (1973) acting as herself, the clothing designer forAnne Baxter's character. HerOscars were displayed on a desk in the scene.
Again as herself, she appeared in the filmLucy Gallant (1955) as theemcee of a fashion show. She also appeared inThe Pleasure of His Company (1961) as she showed dresses forDebbie Reynolds' wedding in the film, and inThe Oscar (1966) in three short, non-speaking scenes oppositeElke Sommer's character, a sketch artist turned costume designer like Head herself. She also appeared on an episode of the game showYou Bet Your Life.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
