With eight Oscars, Edith Head was a force to be reckoned with.
Edith Head was known around Hollywood as one of the best and most iconic costume designers of the 20th century. She won a record-breaking 8 Oscars and is known for the films All About Eve (1950), Roman Holiday (1953), and The Sting (1973). She became the chief designer at Paramount Pictures, and later in life, Edith Head went on to work for Universal Studios.
Edith Head was born Edith Claire Posener on October 28, 1897, in San Bernardino, California. She was the daughter of a mining engineer. During her youth, Head relocated several times: growing up largely in Arizona, Nevada and Mexico.
After she graduated from high school, she went to college at the University Of California Berkeley, where she majored in letters and sciences, as well as, receiving honors in French. Once she completed her undergraduate studies, Head went to Stanford University; here she majored in romance languages, graduating in 1920.
After receiving her M.A., and a brief stint as a schoolteacher, Edith Head took a job as the head sketch artist and design assistant at Paramount Studios in 1923. In 1938, Head was named chief costume designer at Paramount. She remained at Paramount for 44 years until she moved to Universal Studios in 1967. At Universal Studios, she had a reputation for calling producers and directors who were working on important films, to offer her services.
Head received her first Oscar nomination in 1949 for her work in the 1948 film, The Emperor Waltz. The category was Best Costume Designer: Color, which was shared with Gigi Steele. The two ladies won their first Oscar for their joint work in the 1949 film, The Heiress, The Nutty Professor (1963). The category they won was Best Costume Design: Black and White.
Head was known for designing costumes that were elegantly simple and often elaborately flamboyant. In the 1960s, she was a designer for films such as: The Carpetbaggers, Sex and the Single Girl, Penelope Chuka and Bare Foot In The Park
By 1970, Head had received her 31st Oscar Nomination, for her work in the 1969 musical, Sweet Charity. Head also reunited with the acclaimed Alfred Hitchcock to work on Rear Window, Vertigo and The Birds. In 1969, she worked on For Topaz with George Roy.
For sheer entertainment, and not for the design value, she claimed Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid as her favorite movie.
In 1978, she received her last Oscar Nomination for her work in Airport ‘77; a nomination she shared with Burton Miller. Head won her last Oscar four years earlier, a record that she still holds to this day for her work on The Sting.
By the time she died, Edith Head had already established herself as Hollywood’s best-known costume designer. During her lifetime she had worked on more than 1,100 films, received 35 Oscar Nominations, taking home 8.
Head was also known for designing the uniforms for the female U.S. Coast Guard members in 1975. Her thought was the look should last "30 years or more." She earned the Meritorious Public Service Award for her work.
She authored three books: The Dress Doctor (1959), How To Dress For Success (1967), and Edith Head’s Hollywood.
Head died in Hollywood California on Oct. 24, 1981, at age 83. Her look, right down to her iconic glasses, was used in Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles in 2004; the character was Edna Mode.