Edith Head was an American costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making her the most awarded woman in the Academy's history.
33 Facts About Edith Head
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Edith Head won acclaim for her design of Dorothy Lamour's trademark sarong in the 1936 film The Jungle Princess, and became a household name after the Academy Award for Best Costume Design was created in 1948.
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Edith 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.
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Edith Head was born Edith Claire Posener in San Bernardino, California, the daughter of Jewish parents, Max Posener and Anna E Levy.
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Edith Head's father, born in January 1858, was a naturalized American citizen from Germany, who came to the United States in 1876.
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Edith Head's mother was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1875, the daughter of an Austrian father and a Bavarian mother.
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In 1919, Edith Head received a Bachelor of Arts degree in letters and sciences with honors in French from the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1920 earned a Master of Arts degree in romance languages from Stanford University.
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Edith Head became a language teacher with her first position as a replacement at The Bishop's School in La Jolla teaching French.
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In 1924, despite lacking art, design, and costume design experience, the 26-year-old Edith Head was hired as a costume sketch artist at Paramount Pictures.
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Edith Head began designing costumes for silent films, commencing with The Wanderer in 1925 and, by the 1930s, had established herself as one of Hollywood's leading costume designers.
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Edith Head worked at Paramount for 43 years until she went to Universal Pictures on March 27,1967, possibly prompted by her extensive work for director Alfred Hitchcock, who had moved to Universal in 1960.
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Edith Head was instrumental in conspiring against Banton, and after his resignation in 1938 she became a high-profile designer in her own right.
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Edith Head's association with the "sarong" dress designed for Dorothy Lamour in The Hurricane made her well known among the general public, although Head was a more restrained designer than either Banton or Adrian.
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Edith Head gained public attention for the top mink-lined gown she created for Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark, which caused much comment owing to the mood of wartime austerity.
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Edith 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.
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Edith Head was frequently "loaned out" by Paramount to other studios at the request of their female stars.
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In 1946, Edith Head worked for the first time with director Alfred Hitchcock.
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Edith Head, who worked for Paramount, was loaned to Radio-Keith-Orpheum pictures to work with Hitchcock on this film.
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Edith Head felt that it was more important to design pieces that reflected the character.
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On February 3,1955, Edith Head appeared as a contestant on the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life.
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Edith Head authored two books describing her career and design philosophy, The Dress Doctor and How To Dress For Success.
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Edith Head thus turned more of her attention to TV, where some old friends such as Olivia de Havilland had begun working.
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Edith Head designed Endora's clothing on Bewitched, and made a cameo appearance in 1973 on the detective series Columbo beside Anne Baxter, playing herself and displaying her Oscars to date.
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In 1974, Edith Head received a final Oscar win for her work on The Sting.
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Edith Head called the assignment a highlight in her career and received the Meritorious Public Service Award for her efforts.
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Edith Head modeled Martin and Reiner's outfits on classic film noir and the movie, released in theaters just after her death, was dedicated to her memory.
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Edith Head died on October 24,1981, four days before her 84th birthday, from myelofibrosis, an incurable bone marrow disease.
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Edith Head is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
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Edith Head received eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, more than any other person, from a total of 35 nominations.
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Edith Head made a brief appearance in Columbo: Requiem for a Falling Star acting as herself, the clothing designer for Anne Baxter's character.
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Edith Head's Oscars were displayed on a desk in the scene.
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Edith Head appeared in The Pleasure of His Company as she showed dresses for Debbie Reynolds' wedding in the film, and in The Oscar in three short, non-speaking scenes opposite Elke Sommer's character, a sketch artist turned costume designer like Head herself.
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The one-woman play A Conversation with Edith Head premiered in Canada in 2014 at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto.