Home >> Arts >> Movies >> Filmmaking >> Makeup and Costumes >> Costumers >> Head, Edith


  Movies
       


Edith Head (October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American costume designer who had an extended career inside Hollywood that garnered her supplementary Oscar than any more woman within history.

She was innate Edith Claire Posener within Searchlight, Nevada, a girl of Max Posener & Anna E. Levy. Whether her parents were married is unknown, however within 1901, her mother married Frank Spare & Edith wwhen passed off as his little one. Though her birth parents were Jewish, Head would claim to be the Catholic later in life.

She graduated from either university around 1919 & became the schoolteacher around Los Angeles, California. In July 25, 1923, she married Charles Head, whom she would divorce in 1936. By having there is no own household budget, Head answered an ad to function for Paramount Studios in the costume department. She borrowed a second's sketches & passed the two polish off when her have. She began design costumes for silent films & per thirties experienced established herself when one of a leading designers. She worked at Paramount for forty-4 years until she attend Universal Pictures on March 27, 1967.

Head was the super personal woman, the trait swell illustrated per dark dark glasses that became her trademark. Originally a lenses were blue, however afterwards it were progressively dark shades of gray. A glasses & her unchanging hairdo helped help her within hiding her avowedly age. In the Twenties, she bore the Colleen Moore Dutch boy cut, however in the Thirties she found Anna May Wong's style and copied it: flat bangs sustaining a chignon at the back. She would have on it for the rest of her life.

She married placed designer Wiard Ihnen, nicknamed Bill, in September 8, 1940. Their marriage would previous until his dying inside 1978.

In the period of her hanker career she was nominated for thirty-4 Academy Awards and won eight times, more Oscars than any other woman has won. She was responsible a select few of the better known Hollywood fashion images of her day, by owning her costumes existence worn per virtually all glamourous & far-famed actresses of the day inside films seen by hundreds to thousands. Head's influence in globe fashiin was far reaching, especially in the Fifties once she began appearing on Art Linkletter's televisiin program & writing books on fashion.

Ms. Head was known for her there are no-nonsense, self-assertive working style. Despite her have accomplishments, she besides experienced the reputation for ingesting credit for others' function--however around the studio times the department head non uncommonly claimed credit for all about in her department. Privately, she was the warmly & caring hostess, presiding all over fabulous soirees at her Benedict Canyon hacienda, sustaining her married man.

She died inside 1981 from either a uncommon bone marrow disease at the age of 83 & was interred withwithin Woods Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

She has the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6504 Hollywood Blvd.

Head was the womb-to-tomb friend of actress Anne Baxter. Upon Head's dying, Baxter's girl Melissa Galt was bequeathed Head's extraordinary collection of jewellery. More legacy by Head involved large graphics to Roddy McDowall and to Elizabeth Taylor. A previous film she worked in was a Steve Martin comedy ''Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid'', released shortly after her death and dedicated to her memory.

When section of the 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 numerous viewers of the 2004 Pixar/Disney computer-animated film The Incredibles, the personality & mannerisms of the film's invented superhero costume designer Edna Mode suggest a colorful imitation of Edith Head. Edna Mode's feel of style, circular glasses, & self-assertive there is no-nonsense character may be in all probability the straight court to Head's legendary accomplishments & portable traits, however a film's director even, Brad Bird, has non eventually confirmed or denied this[http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,735650_1_0_,00.html].

Edith Head's locate was involved within Boze Hadleigh's book about his interviews by having X Hollywood lesbians, & patch she wasn't talking as well flat out, a gossip just about Head from either more sources like actress Elsa Lanchester, who was as well the lesbian, indicated that she favorite relationships sustaining women to victims sustaining men.

Actresses for whom Edith Head designed

Among a actresses Edith Head intentional 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" picture. 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 Heiresswon 1951 – Color – Samson and Delilahwon 1951 – Black & White – All About Evewon 1952 – Black and White – A Place in the Sunwon 1953 – Color – The Greatest Show on Earth 1953 – Black & White – Carrie 1954 – Black and White – Roman Holidaywon 1955 – Black and White – Sabrinawon :Although Edith Head won an Oscar for Right Costumes, virtually all of Hepburn's outfits were in point of fact created by Hubert de Givenchy and chosen by the star herself. Edith Head refused to become shown alongside Givenchy in a credits, thus she tend credit for the costumes, possibly though the Academy's votes were apparently for Hepburn's dress. Edith Head did non refuse a Oscar, notwithstanding. 1956 – Color – To Catch a Thief 1956 – Black & White – The Rose Tattoo 1957 – Color – The Ten Commandments 1957 – Black & White – The Proud and Profane 1958 – Best Costume Design – Funny Face 1959 – Best Costume Design, Black & White or even Color – The Buccaneer 1960 – Color – The Five Pennies 1960 – Black & White – Career 1961 – Color – Pepe 1961 – Black & White – The Facts of Lifewon 1962 – Color – Pocketful of Miracles 1963 – Color – My Geisha 1963 – Black & White – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1964 – Color – A New Kind of Love 1964 – Black & White – Wives and Lovers 1964 – Black & White – Love With a Proper Stranger 1965 – Color – What a Way to Go! 1965 – Black & White – A House Is Not A Home 1966 – Color – Inside Daisy Clover 1966 – Black & White – The Slender Thread 1967 – Color – The Oscar Oscars there is no yearn awarded individually for even Color or Black & White 1970 – Sweet Charity 1971 – Airport 1974 – The Stingwon 1976 – The Man Who Would Be King 1978 – Airport ‘77

Costume Designers Guild: Hall of Fame
Biography offered for the designer, "arguably the most famous costume designer in Hollywood history".

British Film Institute: Sunset Boulevard
Notes offered on the costume and makeup for the Billy Wilder film.

Sketches - Edith Head's Hollywood
Official site for the play based on the costume designer's professional life.

Suite101: The Magic of Edith Head
Biography by Anne Paxton who calls Head "the first American fashion designer for the normal American woman."

All Movie Guide
Biography and filmography provided for the designer.

Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Filmography and biography presented for the designer.

France Fashion: The Fashion Career That Began As a Dare
Edith Head got her first Hollywood gig by submitting someone else's drawings with her application. Fifteen years later in 1938, Paramount made her the first woman to head a major studio's Costume Design department.


Arts: Costumes
Arts: Movies: Awards: Academy Awards: Recipients: Best Costume Design
Arts: Movies: Awards: Academy Awards: Recipients: Best Costume Design: Black and White Category
Arts: Movies: Awards: Academy Awards: Recipients: Best Costume Design: Color Category





© 2005 GeneralAnswers.org