Phyllis Dalton
Phyllis Dalton | |
|---|---|
in 1967 | |
| Born | Phyllis Margaret Dalton 16 October 1925 Chiswick, Middlesex, England |
| Died | 9 January 2025 (aged 99) Somerset, England |
| Occupation | Costume designer |
| Years active | 1951–1993 |
| Spouses |
|
Phyllis Margaret Dalton, MBE (16 October 1925 – 9 January 2025) was a British costume designer. She has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and an Emmy Award.
Dalton is best known for her collaborations with directors David Lean, Carol Reed, Rob Reiner, and Kenneth Branagh. She has 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).
Background
Dalton was born in Chiswick on 16 October 1925.[1] As a teenager she studied at the Ealing School of Art.[1] 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".[2]
Career
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.[3] 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.[4]
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.[1]
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.[1] 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.[5]
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).[1]
A special BAFTA tribute was held in 2012 to celebrate Dalton's contribution to British cinema.[3]
Personal life and death
Dalton was married twice; in 1969 she married theatre producer James Whiteley, and they divorced in 1976.[1][6] She then married Christopher Synge Barton, and became a stepmother to his son.[1] Dalton lived in Somerset and died at home on 9 January 2025, at the age of 99.[1][7]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | The Dark Man | Jeffrey Dell | |
| 1953 | Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue | Harold French | |
| 1955 | Passage Home | Roy Ward Baker | |
| 1956 | Zarak | Terence Young | |
| 1957 | Island in the Sun | Robert Rossen | |
| 1958 | Carve Her Name with Pride | Lewis Gilbert | |
| 1959 | John Paul Jones | John Farrow | |
| Our Man in Havana | Carol Reed | ||
| 1960 | The World of Suzie Wong | Richard Quine | |
| 1961 | Fury at Smugglers' Bay | John Gilling | |
| 1962 | Lawrence of Arabia | David Lean | |
| 1965 | Lord Jim | Richard Brooks | |
| Doctor Zhivago | David Lean | ||
| 1968 | Oliver! | Carol Reed | |
| 1970 | Fragment of Fear | Richard C. Sarafian | |
| 1973 | The Hireling | Alan Bridges | |
| 1976 | The Message | Moustapha Akkad | |
| Voyage of the Damned | Stuart Rosenberg | ||
| 1978 | The Water Babies | Lionel Jeffries | |
| 1979 | Eagle's Wing | Anthony Harvey | |
| 1980 | The Awakening | Mike Newell | |
| The Mirror Crack'd | Guy Hamilton | ||
| 1984 | A Private Function | Malcolm Mowbray | |
| 1987 | The Princess Bride | Rob Reiner | |
| 1988 | Stealing Heaven | Clive Donner | |
| 1989 | Henry V | Kenneth Branagh | |
| 1991 | Dead Again | ||
| 1993 | Much Ado About Nothing |
Television
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1982 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Television film |
| The Scarlet Pimpernel | ||
| 1985 | Merlin and the Sword | |
| 1986 | The Last Days of Patton | |
| 1990 | The Plot to Kill Hitler |
Awards and nominations
| Award | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | 1965 | Best Costume Design – Color | Doctor Zhivago | Won | [8] |
| 1968 | Best Costume Design | Oliver! | Nominated | [9] | |
| 1989 | Henry V | Won | [10] | ||
| British Academy Film Awards | 1968 | Best Costume Design | Oliver! | Nominated | [11] |
| 1973 | The Hireling | Won | [12] | ||
| 1989 | Henry V | Nominated | [13] | ||
| 1993 | Much Ado About Nothing | Nominated | [14] | ||
| BAFTA Special Award for Craft | — | Honored | |||
| Primetime Emmy Awards | 1983 | Outstanding Costume Design for a Limited Series or a Special | The Scarlet Pimpernel | Won | [15] |
| Saturn Awards | 1987 | Best Costume Design | The Princess Bride | Won | [16] |
Other honours
- Dalton was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2002 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry.[17]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wu, Ash (31 January 2025). "Phyllis Dalton, Oscar-Winning Costume Designer for Historical Epics, Dies at 99". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
- ^ Brownlow, Kevin; David Lean: A Biography; St. Martins Press; 1st edition (September 1997)
- ^ a b "A BAFTA Tribute to Phyllis Dalton MBE". Issuu. 22 November 2012.
- ^ "The British Entertainment History Project | Phyllis Dalton |". historyproject.org.uk. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
- ^ "FILM INSPIRATION: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (BY DAVID LEAN) 1965". 6 April 2020.
- ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "The 38th Academy Awards (1966) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). 4 October 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "The 41st Academy Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). 4 October 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "The 62nd Academy Awards (1990) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). 5 October 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "The 22nd British Academy Film Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "The 27th British Academy Film Awards (1974) Nominees and Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "The 43rd British Academy Film Awards (1990) Nominees and Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "The 47th British Academy Film Awards (1994) Nominees and Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "Phyllis Dalton". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). Retrieved 21 July 2023.
- ^ "1987 | 15th Saturn Awards". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 13 February 2006. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
- ^ "No. 56595". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 2002. p. 15.