Edith Head
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Edith Head (October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American costume designer who had a long career in Hollywood that garnered her more Academy Awards than any other woman in history.
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Early life and career
She was born Edith Claire Posener in Searchlight, Nevada, the daughter of Max Posener and Anna E. Levy. Whether her parents were married is unknown, but in 1901, her mother married Frank Spare and Edith was passed off as his child. Though her birth parents were Jewish, Head would claim to be a Catholic later in life.
She graduated from university in 1919 and became a school teacher in Los Angeles, California. On July 25, 1923, she married Charles Head, whom she would divorce in 1936. With no experience, Head answered an advertisement to work for Paramount Studios in the costume department. She borrowed another's sketches and passed them off as her own. She began designing costumes for silent films and by the thirties had established herself as one of the leading designers. She worked at Paramount for forty-four years until she went to Universal Pictures on March 27, 1967.
She married set designer Wiard Ihnen, nicknamed Bill, on September 8, 1940. Their marriage would last until his death in 1978.
Distinguished career
During her long career she was nominated for thirty-four Academy Awards and won eight times, more Oscars than any other woman has won. She was responsible for some of the best known Hollywood fashion images of her day, with her costumes being worn by the most glamorous and famous actresses of the day in films seen by millions. Head's influence on world fashion was far reaching, especially in the 1950s when she began appearing on Art Linkletter's television program and writing books on fashion.
Ms. Head was known for her no-nonsense, assertive working style. Despite her own accomplishments, she also had a reputation for taking credit for others' work--but in the studio days a department head not uncommonly claimed credit for everything in her department. Privately, she was a warm and loving hostess, presiding over fabulous soirees at her Benedict Canyon hacienda, with her husband.
She died in 1981 from a rare bone marrow disease at the age of 83 (four days before her 84th birthday) and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6504 Hollywood Blvd.
Interesting facts
- Head was a very private woman, a trait well illustrated by the dark sunglasses that became her trademark. Originally the lenses were blue, but later they were increasingly dark shades of gray. The glasses and her unchanging hair style helped aid her in hiding her true age. In the 1920s, she wore a Colleen Moore Dutch boy cut, but in the 1930s she noticed Anna May Wong's style and copied it: flat bangs with a chignon at the back. She would wear it for the rest of her life.
- Head was a lifelong friend of actress Anne Baxter. Upon Head's death, Baxter's daughter Melissa Galt was bequeathed Head's extraordinary collection of jewelry. Other bequests by Head included prominent artworks to Roddy McDowall and to Elizabeth Taylor. The last film she worked on was the Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, released shortly after her death and dedicated to her memory.
- As part of a series of stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service in February 2003 commemorating the behind-the-camera personnel who make movies, Head appeared on an American postage stamp honoring costume design.
- To many viewers of the 2004 Pixar/Disney computer-animated film The Incredibles, the personality and mannerisms of the film's fictional superhero costume designer Edna Mode suggest a colorful caricature of Edith Head. Edna Mode's sense of style, round glasses, and assertive no-nonsense character are very likely a direct homage to Head's legendary accomplishments and personal traits, but the film's director, Brad Bird, has not yet confirmed or denied this (see [1]).
- An interview with Edith Head was included in Boze Hadleigh's book Hollywood Lesbians. While the designer did not confirm or deny her sexuality in the interview, gossip about Head from other sources such as actress Elsa Lanchester, reported herself a lesbian, has lead some to claim that Head was also homosexual.
- The rock group They Might Be Giants made reference to her in a song called "(She Thinks She's) Edith Head".
Actresses for whom Edith Head designed
Among the actresses Edith Head designed for were:
- Mae West in She Done Him Wrong, 1933
- Frances Farmer in Rhythm on the Range, 1936 and Ebb Tide, 1937
- Paulette Goddard in The Cat and the Canary, 1939
- Veronica Lake in Sullivan's Travels, 1941 and I Married a Witch, 1942
- Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve and Ball of Fire both 1941 and Double Indemnity, 1944
- Ingrid Bergman in Notorious, 1946
- Dorothy Lamour in most of "The Road" movies.
- Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter, 1947
- Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress, 1949
- Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in All About Eve, 1950
- Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, 1950
- Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun, 1951
- Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, 1953
- Grace Kelly in Rear Window, 1954, and To Catch a Thief, 1955
- Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956
- Marlene Dietrich in Witness for the Prosecution, 1957
- Rita Hayworth in Separate Tables, 1958
- Kim Novak in Vertigo, 1958
- Tippi Hedren in The Birds, 1963 and Marnie, 1964
Edith Head's Oscar nominations
- 1949 – Color – The Emperor Waltz
- 1950 – Black and White – The Heiress – won
- 1951 – Color – Samson and Delilah – won
- 1951 – Black and White – All About Eve – won
- 1952 – Black and White – A Place in the Sun – won
- 1953 – Color – The Greatest Show on Earth
- 1953 – Black and White – Carrie
- 1954 – Black and White – Roman Holiday – won
- 1955 – Black and White – Sabrina – won
- Although Edith Head won an Oscar for Best Costumes, most of Hepburn's outfits were in fact created by Hubert de Givenchy and chosen by the star herself. Edith Head refused to be shown alongside Givenchy in the credits, so she was given credit for the costumes, even though the Academy's votes were obviously for Hepburn's attire. Edith Head did not refuse the Oscar, however.
- 1956 – Color – To Catch a Thief
- 1956 – Black and White – The Rose Tattoo
- 1957 – Color – The Ten Commandments
- 1957 – Black and White – The Proud and Profane
- 1958 – Best Costume Design – Funny Face
- 1959 – Best Costume Design, Black and White or Color – The Buccaneer
- 1960 – Color – The Five Pennies
- 1960 – Black and White – Career
- 1961 – Color – Pepe
- 1961 – Black and White – The Facts of Life – won
- 1962 – Color – Pocketful of Miracles
- 1963 – Color – My Geisha
- 1963 – Black and White – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- 1964 – Color – A New Kind of Love
- 1964 – Black and White – Wives and Lovers
- 1964 – Black and White – Love With a Proper Stranger
- 1965 – Color – What a Way to Go!
- 1965 – Black and White – A House Is Not A Home
- 1966 – Color – Inside Daisy Clover
- 1966 – Black and White – The Slender Thread
- 1967 – Color – The Oscar
- Oscars no longer awarded separately for Color or Black and White
- 1970 – Sweet Charity
- 1971 – Airport
- 1974 – The Sting – won
- 1976 – The Man Who Would Be King
- 1978 – Airport ‘77
- Shawna
References
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- John Duka "Edith Head, Fashion Designer for the Movies, Dies." The New York Times. October 27, 1981.
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