Edith Head
Edith Head (born October 28, 1897 in San Bernardino , California as Edith Claire Posener , † October 24, 1981 in Los Angeles ) was an American costume designer for films. She supplied nearly 450 American films with her costume designs and received 35 Oscar nominations for them and won eight Academy Awards. This made her the most awarded costume designer and woman in the history of the Academy Awards.
Life
Edith Head was born to Max Posener and Anna E. Levy in San Bernardino, California. She received her Masters in French from Stanford University in 1920 and also graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley . She continued her studies at the Otis Institute and the Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles. During the 1920s she taught French and art at the Hollywood School for Girls. In 1923 she married Charles Head, from whom she divorced in 1936. Also in 1923 she tried briefly as an actress, but noticed that she liked the tailoring of film costumes more. She first worked for Paramount Pictures under the direction of designer Howard Greer . From 1927 she was assistant to Travis Banton , who made a name for himself in the 1930s with his costumes for Marlene Dietrich . Head rose to head designer in 1938 within the Paramount costume department, which was later named after her. In 1940 she married the production designer Wiard you .
For decades, Edith Head's name has been synonymous with Hollywood costumes. She influenced America's fashion through her designs for some of the leading female stars. The sarong she designed for Dorothy Lamour in The Jungle Princess (1936) caused a sensation and was copied many times. Likewise the strapless evening dress with tulle and satin for Elizabeth Taylor in Ein Platz an der Sonne (1951). She designed a silk dress for Grace Kelly , which she wore at the 1954 Academy Awards when she received the Oscar for A Country Girl . After a total of 44 years at Paramount, Head moved to Universal in 1967 , where she remained employed until her death.
The film parody Dead in No Checks (1981) was the last film that Head was involved in. In doing so, she copied costumes by other designers from the studio era, so that the cut scenes from classic film noirs of the 1940s matched the newly shot material. Edith Head died shortly after completing her work on this film of myelofibrosis , a rare disease of the bone marrow . Her grave is in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale , California.
Head played himself in the 1973 episode Gossip Can Be Deadly (2x05) in the TV series Columbo . A photo of Edith Head at work was listed as one of a block of ten "US 37c" commemorative stamps on May 25 Issued February 2003. The brands belong to the series "American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes". The figure of Edna Mode in the Disney / Pixar production The Incredibles (2004) was modeled on Edith Head.
Filmography (selection)
- 1936: The Jungle Princess (The Jungle Princess)
- 1938: The Big Broadcast of 1938
- 1938: Tropic Holiday
- 1941: The Cardsharp (The Lady Eve)
- 1941: Vacation From Heaven (Here Comes Mr. Jordan)
- 1941: Aloma, the daughter of the South Seas (Aloma of the South Seas)
- 1941: The Golden Gate (Hold Back the Dawn)
- 1941: The Strange Taming of the Gangster Bride Sugarpuss (Ball of Fire)
- 1941: Sullivan's Travels (Sullivan's Travels)
- 1941: Birth of the Blues
- 1941: Marriage Posse (Skylark)
- 1942: Music, Music (Holiday Inn)
- 1942: The Major and the Minor (The Major and the Minor)
- 1942: The Glass Key (The Glass Key)
- 1942: Die Scarhand (This Gun for Hire)
- 1942: My Wife, the Witch (I Married a Witch)
- 1942: Road to Morocco (Road to Morocco)
- 1943: The Second Face (Flesh and Fantasy)
- 1943: Lady of Burlesque
- 1944: A Woman's Dreams (Lady in the Dark)
- 1944: The mysterious guest (The Uninvited)
- 1944: The Road to Happiness (Going My Way)
- 1944: Woman without a conscience (Double Indemnity)
- 1944: I'll Be Seeing You
- 1944: Here Come the Waves
- 1945: A Medal for Benny
- 1945: Incendiary Blonde
- 1945: The Lost Weekend (The Lost Weekend)
- 1945: The Bells of St. Mary's (The Bells of St. Mary's)
- 1946: Notorious (Notorious)
- 1946: Mutterherz (To Each His Own)
- 1946: The Blue Dahlia (The Blue Dahlia)
- 1946: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (The Strange Love of Martha Ivers)
- 1947: The Two Mrs. Carrolls (The Two Mrs. Carrolls)
- 1947: Pauline, stop kissing (The Perils of Pauline)
- 1947: The farmer's daughter (The Farmer's Daughter)
- 1948: I kiss your hand, Madame (The Emperor Waltz)
- 1948: A Foreign Affair (A Foreign Affair)
- 1948: You're still alive for 105 minutes (Sorry, Wrong Number)
- 1948: Night Has a Thousand Eyes (Night Has a Thousand Eyes)
- 1949: The Heiress (The Heiress)
- 1949: Samson and Delilah (Samson and Delilah)
- 1950: Laugh and Cry with Me (Riding High)
- 1950: All About Eve (All About Eve)
- 1950: Twilight Boulevard (Sunset Blvd.)
- 1951: A Place in the Sun (A Place in the Sun)
- 1951: Doomsday (When Worlds Collide)
- 1951: Police Station 21 (Detective Story)
- 1952: The Greatest Show on Earth (The Greatest Show on Earth)
- 1952: Carrie
- 1952: The White Son of the Sioux (The Savage)
- 1952: What life is worth (Something to Live For)
- 1952: Come Back, Little Sheba (Come Back, Little Sheba)
- 1953: Geknechtet (The Vanquished)
- 1953: My great friend Shane (Shane)
- 1953: War of the Worlds (The War of the Worlds)
- 1953: A Heart and a Crown (Roman Holiday)
- 1954: The Laughing Bomb (Knock on Wood)
- 1954: The Rear Window
- 1954: Elephants path (Elephant Walk)
- 1954: Sabrina
- 1954: White Christmas (White Christmas)
- 1954: The Country Girl (The Country Girl)
- 1955: Above the roofs of Nice (To Catch a Thief)
- 1955: The Trouble with Harry (The Trouble with Harry)
- 1955: On a Day Like Any Other (The Desperate Hours)
- 1955: The Agent Schreck (Artists and Models)
- 1955: The Rose Tattoo (The Rose Tattoo)
- 1955: The Court Jester (The Court Jester)
- 1956: The Man Who Knew Too Much (The Man Who Knew Too Much)
- 1956: The Ten Commandments (The Ten Commandments)
- 1956: The Mount of Temptation (The Mountain)
- 1956: The Rainmaker (The Rainmaker)
- 1957: Witness for the Prosecution (Witness for the Prosecution)
- 1957: A cute face (Funny Face)
- 1957: Two accounts (Gunfight at the OK Corral)
- 1957: The Devil's Curve (The Devil's Hairpin)
- 1957: Melody of Destiny (The Joker Is Wild)
- 1958: King of the Buccaneer
- 1958: Separated from table and bed (separate tables)
- 1958: Reporter of Love (Teacher's Pet)
- 1958: Vertigo - From the realm of the dead (Vertigo)
- 1958: Houseboat (Houseboat)
- 1959: Five Pennies (The Five Pennies)
- 1960: Cinderella (Cinderfella)
- 1960: Such an Affair (The Facts of Life)
- 1961: The Errand Boy (The Errand Boy)
- 1961: The Lower Ten Thousand (Pocketful of Miracles)
- 1961: All in a Night (All in a Night's Work)
- 1961: Breakfast at Tiffany's (Breakfast at Tiffany's)
- 1962: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance)
- 1962: Hatari!
- 1963: The Birds (The Birds)
- 1963: In love with a stranger (Love with the Proper Stranger)
- 1963: A New Kind of Love (A New Kind of Love)
- 1964: A goldfish on a leash (Man's Favorite Sport?)
- 1964: Always with someone else (What a Way to Go!)
- 1964: Marnie
- 1964: Madame P. and her girls (A House Is Not a Home)
- 1964: The Yellow Rolls-Royce (The Yellow Rolls-Royce)
- 1965: The Sons of Katie Elder (The Sons of Katie Elder)
- 1965: The Great Race (The Great Race)
- 1965: Damn, Sweet World (Inside Daisy Clover)
- 1966: attack on the Queen Mary ( Assault on a Queen )
- 1966: The Torn Curtain
- 1966: The Hotel (Hotel)
- 1967: Barefoot in the Park (Barefoot in the Park)
- 1968: Inferno on the River (Blue)
- 1970: Storia di una donna
- 1970: They Want To Be Giants (Sometimes a Great Notion)
- 1972: Hammersmith is out (Hammersmith Is Out)
- 1972: The vultures are already waiting (Showdown)
- 1973: Nora (A Doll's House)
- 1973: The Sting (The Sting)
- 1976: The Blue Bird (The Blue Bird)
- 1981: Dead Men Do not Wear Plaid (Dead Men Do not Wear Plaid)
Awards
Edith Head received a total of 35 nominations in the Best Costume Design category . She could win eight Oscars for:
- 1950: The Heiress (with Gile Steele )
- 1951: Samson and Delilah (together with Dorothy Jeakins , Elois Jensson , Gile Steele and Gwen Wakeling )
- 1951: Everything about Eva
- 1952: A place in the sun
- 1954: a heart and a crown
- 1955: Sabrina
- 1961: Such An Affair (with Edward Stevenson )
- 1974: The highlight
- 1964: Golden Laurel (Special Prize)
- Star on the Walk of Fame for her films (6500 Hollywood Blvd).
Web links
- Edith Head in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Edith Head in the All Movie Guide (English)
- Edith Head on fashionmodeldirectory.com (English)
- Edith Head in the database of Find a Grave (English)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Head, Edith |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Posener, Edith Claire |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American costume designer for a film |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 28, 1897 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | San Bernardino , California , USA |
DATE OF DEATH | October 24, 1981 |
Place of death | Los Angeles , California , USA |