Phyllis Dalton | |
|---|---|
 in 1967 | |
| Born | Phyllis Margaret Dalton (1925-10-16)16 October 1925 Chiswick, Middlesex, England |
| Died | 9 January 2025(2025-01-09) (aged 99) Somerset, England |
| Occupation | Costume designer |
| Years active | 1946–1993 |
| Spouses |
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Phyllis Margaret Dalton,MBE (16 October 1925 – 9 January 2025) was a Britishcostume designer. In a career spanning over four decades, she was recognised for her prolific work across film and television. She received various accolades, including twoAcademy Awards, a BAFTA Award, aSaturn Award, and anEmmy Award.
Dalton is best known for her collaborations with directorsDavid Lean, Carol Reed,Rob Reiner, and Kenneth Branagh. She received three nominations for theAcademy Award for Best Costume Design, and won twice forDoctor Zhivago (1965) andHenry V (1989). She was also nominated for theBAFTA Award for Best Costume Design four times, winning for The Hireling (1973).
Dalton was born inChiswick on 16 October 1925.[1] As a teenager she studied at theEaling School of Art.[1] After the outbreak ofWorld War II she began training as aWren at the code-breaking facilityBletchley Park which she said she found to be "unbelievably boring".[2]
In 1946, after being "demobbed" her grandmother entered her into a competition atVogue Magazine where she won the opportunity to work as an assistant in the wardrobe department atGainsborough Studios inIslington.[3] Once there, she began cutting her teeth on films likeBrian Desmond Hurst'sA Christmas Carol;Alfred Hitchcock'sThe Man Who Knew Too Much and onAnatole Litvak'sAnastasia.[4]
Dalton gained notoriety as a costumer in the latter part of the 1950s, making a name for herself on films likeIsland in the Sun (1957), directed byRobert Rossen, starringJames Mason andJoan Fontaine; andOur Man in Havana (1959), directed byCarol Reed, starringAlec Guinness andNoël Coward.[1]
But perhaps her most memorable work may well be from her collaboration withDavid Lean on two of his most critically acclaimed films:Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, starringPeter O'Toole andOmar Sharif; and again three years later onDr. Zhivago starring Sharif andJulie Christie, for which she won her firstAcademy Award.[1] For this particular film, Dalton and her team ended up making 3,000 individual costumes and putting together 35,000 individual items of clothing for the extras. The characters of Zhivago (Sharif) and Lara (Christie) each had approximately 90 costume combinations, and the other six other principal characters had an average of fifteen costume changes each. Because this was beforeCGI, by the time principal photography ended it was estimated the costume dept. had used up a total of 984 yards of fabric, 300,000 yards of thread, 1 million buttons and 7,000 safety pins.[5]
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In all, Dalton has designed costumes for more than forty films. Other notable ones includeLord Jim (1965) again with O'Toole and directed byRichard Brooks,Oliver! (1968) withRon Moody andOliver Reed directed by Carol Reed; andThe Princess Bride (1987) directed byRob Reiner withCary Elwes andRobin Wright. A few of the other stars who have worn her creations includeElizabeth Taylor,Kim Novak,Maggie Smith,Emma Thompson,Robin Williams,Keanu Reeves,Denzel Washington andMichael Palin.
Her body of work also includesRob Roy: The Highland Rogue (1953),John Paul Jones (1959),The World of Suzie Wong (1960),The Message andVoyage of the Damned (both 1976),The Mirror Crack'd andThe Awakening (both 1980),A Private Function (1984), and her last credited work,Much Ado About Nothing (1993).[1]
A special BAFTA tribute was held in 2012 to celebrate Dalton's contribution to British cinema.[3]
Dalton was married twice; in 1969 she married theatre producer James Whiteley, and they divorced in 1976.[1][6] She then married Christopher Synge Barton, and became a stepmother to his son.[1] Dalton lived inSomerset and died at home on 9 January 2025, at the age of 99.[1][7]
| Award | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | 1965 | Best Costume Design – Color | Doctor Zhivago | Won | [8] |
| 1968 | Best Costume Design | Oliver! | Nominated | [9] | |
| 1989 | Henry V | Won | [10] | ||
| British Academy Film Awards | 1968 | Best Costume Design | Oliver! | Nominated | [11] |
| 1973 | The Hireling | Won | [12] | ||
| 1989 | Henry V | Nominated | [13] | ||
| 1993 | Much Ado About Nothing | Nominated | [14] | ||
| BAFTA Special Award for Craft | — | Honored | |||
| Primetime Emmy Awards | 1983 | Outstanding Costume Design for a Limited Series or a Special | The Scarlet Pimpernel | Won | [15] |
| Saturn Awards | 1987 | Best Costume Design | The Princess Bride | Won | [16] |
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