Edith Head

Career / Biography

Edith Head had a long and prolific career as a costume designer with most of career spent working for Paramount Pictures. She is reputed to have said If it's a Paramount film I probably designed it. In 1967, aged 70, she moved to Universal Pictures. She worked on over 750 films during her career and received 35 Oscar nominations of which she won 8. She designed dresses for many of the leading actresses including Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers, Olivia de Havilland, Barbara Stanwyck, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. Despite designing glamourous dressess she generally wore plain suits and thick rimmed glasses.

Oscars - Won

Best Costume Design - Black-and-White - The Heiress (1949)
Best Costume Design - Black-and-White - Samson and Delilah (1949)
Best Costume Design - Color - All About Eve (1950)
Best Costume Design - Black-and-White - A Place in the Sun (1951)
Best Costume Design - Black-and-White - Roman Holiday (1953)
Best Costume Design - Black-and-White - Sabrina (1954)
Best Costume Design - Black-and-White - The Facts of Life (1960)
Best Costume Design - The Sting (1973)

Oscars - Nomination

Color Category
The Emperor Waltz (1948), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Ten Commandments (1956), The Five Pennies (1959), Pepe (1960), Pocketful of Miracles (1961), My Geisha (1962), A New Kind of Love (1963), What a Way to Go! (1964), Inside Daisy Clover (1965), The Oscar (1966).
Black and White Category
Carrie (1952), The Rose Tattoo (1955), The Proud and Profane (1956), Career (1959), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Wives and Lovers (1963), Love with the Proper Stranger (1963), A House Is Not a Home (1964), The Slender Thread (1965)
Combined Category
Funny Face (1957), The Buccaneer (1958), Sweet Charity (1969), Airport (1970), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Airport '77 (1977)