’A Conversation With
Edith Head,’ a one-woman show starring Susan Claassen, about the famous
Hollywood costume designer. Opens in LA at The Odyssey Theatre starting Oct. 28.
Edith Head had grand designs on Hollywood for six decades,
earning 35 Oscar nominations for her influential costume designs and winning eight
Academy Awards
for such films as 1949′s “The Heiress,” 1951′s “A Place in the Sun,”
1954′s “Sabrina” and 1960′s “The Facts of Life.” She was a favorite of
Billy Wilder, designing the costumes for his classic 1944 film noir
“Double Indemnity” and his 1950 masterpiece “Sunset Boulevard,” as well as of
Alfred Hitchcock, creating iconic looks in such romantic thrillers as 1946′s “Notorious,” 1954′s
“Rear Window,” 1958′s
“Vertigo” and 1963′s “The Birds.” Besides designing costumes for films, Head also created personal wardrobes for the likes of
Olivia de Havilland and
Joan Crawford.
She designed the uniforms for Pan Am airline stewardesses and she was
not afraid to offer frank makeover tips to housewives as a regular on
Art Linkletter‘s “House Party”
CBS daytime series. – -
more about this LAtimes.com
Hollywood costume designer Theadora Van Runkle, whose influence spanned four decades and a range of movie genres including period pieces like “Bonnie and Clyde” — which earned her the first of three Academy Award nominations — and over-the-top comedies like 1989′s “Troop Beverly Hills,” has died. She was 83. Van Runkle died Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of lung cancer, the Costume Designers Guild announced. Born March 27, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Van Runkle made connections in the entertainment industry not long after that. “She came out here as a baby,” her son Max said, “when her mother came out here to try and make it in Hollywood.” – - story by By Adam Tschorn LA Times READ MORE
