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Phyllis Dalton

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Phyllis Dalton
MBE
Born
Phyllis Margaret Dalton

(1925-10-16)16 October 1925
London, England
Died9 January 2025(2025-01-09) (aged 99)
OccupationCostume designer
Years active1946–1993

Phyllis Dalton, MBE (16 October 1925 – 9 January 2025) was an English costume designer. In a career spanning over four decades, she was recognised for her prolific work across film and television. She received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Saturn Award, and an Emmy Award.

Dalton is best known for her collaborations with directors David Lean, Carol Reed, Rob Reiner, and Kenneth Branagh. She received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and won twice for Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Henry V (1989). She was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design four times, winning for The Hireling (1973).

Life and career

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Dalton was born in London, England on 16 October 1925. As a teenager she studied at the Ealing School of Art. After the outbreak of World War II she began training as a Wren at the code-breaking facility Bletchley Park which she said she found to be "unbelievably boring".[1] In 1946, after being "demobbed" her grandmother entered her into a competition at Vogue Magazine where she won the opportunity to work as an assistant in the wardrobe department at Gainsborough Studios in Islington.[2] Once there, she began cutting her teeth on films like Brian Desmond Hurst's A Christmas Carol; Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much and on Anatole Litvak's Anastasia.[citation needed]

Dalton gained notoriety as a costumer in the latter part of the 1950s, making a name for herself on films like Island in the Sun (1957), directed by Robert Rossen, starring James Mason and Joan Fontaine; and Our Man in Havana (1959), directed by Carol Reed, starring Alec Guinness and Noël Coward.

But perhaps her most memorable work may well be from her collaboration with David Lean on two of his most critically acclaimed films: Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, starring Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif; and again three years later on Dr. Zhivago starring Sharif and Julie Christie, for which she won her first Academy Award. For this particular film, Dalton and her team ended up making 3,000 individual costumes and putting together 35,000 individual items of clothing for the extras. The characters of Zhivago (Sharif) and Lara (Christie) each had approximately 90 costume combinations, and the other six other principal characters had an average of fifteen costume changes each. Because this was before CGI, by the time principal photography ended it was estimated the costume dept. had used up a total of 984 yards of fabric, 300,000 yards of thread, 1 million buttons and 7,000 safety pins.[3]

Peter O'Toole in one of Dalton's more famous costumes for Lawrence: the sheikh's white robes and keffiyeh given to him by Sherif Ali. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Julie Christie in one of Dalton's award-winning designs for Dr. Zhivago (1965)
Dalton's costumes for Montoya, Buttercup and Westley for The Princess Bride (1987) on display at the EMP Museum, Seattle

In all, Dalton has designed costumes for more than forty films. Other notable ones include Lord Jim (1965) again with O'Toole and directed by Richard Brooks, Oliver! (1968) with Ron Moody and Oliver Reed directed by Carol Reed; and The Princess Bride (1987) directed by Rob Reiner with Cary Elwes and Robin Wright. A few of the other stars who have worn her creations include Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Robin Williams, Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington and Michael Palin.

Her body of work also includes Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue (1953), John Paul Jones (1959), The World of Suzie Wong (1960), The Message and Voyage of the Damned (both 1976), The Mirror Crack'd and The Awakening (both 1980), A Private Function (1984), and her last credited work, Much Ado About Nothing (1993).

A special BAFTA tribute was held in 2012 to celebrate Dalton's contribution to British cinema.[2]

Dalton died on 9 January 2025, at the age of 99.[4]

Awards and nominations

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Award Year Category Work Result Ref.
Academy Awards 1965 Best Costume Design – Color Doctor Zhivago Won [5]
1968 Best Costume Design Oliver! Nominated [6]
1989 Henry V Won [7]
British Academy Film Awards 1968 Best Costume Design Oliver! Nominated [8]
1973 The Hireling Won [9]
1989 Henry V Nominated [10]
1993 Much Ado About Nothing Nominated [11]
BAFTA Special Award for Craft — Honored
Primetime Emmy Awards 1983 Outstanding Costume Design for a Limited Series or a Special The Scarlet Pimpernel Won [12]
Saturn Awards 1987 Best Costume Design The Princess Bride Won [13]

Other honours

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References

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  1. ^ Brownlow, Kevin; David Lean: A Biography; St. Martins Press; 1st edition (September 1997)
  2. ^ a b "A BAFTA Tribute to Phyllis Dalton MBE". Issuu. 22 November 2012.
  3. ^ "FILM INSPIRATION: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (BY DAVID LEAN) 1965". 6 April 2020.
  4. ^ "Phyllis Dalton, costume designer who won Academy Awards for Doctor Zhivago and Kenneth Branagh's Henry V". The Telegraph. 12 January 2025. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  5. ^ "The 38th Academy Awards (1966) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). 4 October 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  6. ^ "The 41st Academy Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). 4 October 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  7. ^ "The 62nd Academy Awards (1990) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). 5 October 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  8. ^ "The 22nd British Academy Film Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  9. ^ "The 27th British Academy Film Awards (1974) Nominees and Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  10. ^ "The 43rd British Academy Film Awards (1990) Nominees and Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  11. ^ "The 47th British Academy Film Awards (1994) Nominees and Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  12. ^ "Phyllis Dalton". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  13. ^ "1987 | 15th Saturn Awards". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 13 February 2006. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  14. ^ "No. 56595". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 2002. p. 15.
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