Born October 28, 1897 in San Bernadino, California, Edith Claire Posener became Edith Head when she married her first husband, Charles Head in 1923.

The future costume designer received a Bachelor of Arts degree in letters and science with honors in French from the University of California, Berkeley (1919), and a Master of Arts degree in romantic languages from Stanford University (1920). Alumnae Initiate of Delta Zeta sorority, Mu chapter.

Head’s first job was as a teacher of French, Spanish and Art at the Bishop School for Girls at La Jolla, California. She got into films by answering a wanted ad as a sketch artist for Paramount in 1924.  In 1938, she became Head of Design at Paramount, contributing in one way or another to over 1,000 films (supervising costumes for 47 films in 1940 alone).

Divorced from Head in 1938, she married second husband, Oscar winning set designer Wiard Ihnen (Wilson, Blood on the Sun) from 1940 to his death in 1979.  Head was herself nominated for thirty-five Oscars, winning eight of them.

Head’s first Oscar nomination was for 1948’s The Emperor Waltz.  Her next four nominations were for The Heiress, Samson and Delilah, All About Eve, and A Place in the Sun, all of which she won for.  Nominated for 1952’s The Greatest Show on Earth and Carrie, she won back-to-back Oscars, her fifth and sixth, for Roman Holiday and Sabrina.  Nominated again for 1955’s To Catch a Thief, she was upset when she lost the 1955 Oscar for color costume design to Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, fuming that Jennifer Jones’ gowns could have been purchased off the rack in Chinatown. Her nominated black-and-white design that year for The Rose Tattoo also lost.

Head also lost her next six nominations for The Ten Commandments, The Proud and Profane, Funny Face, The Buccaneer, The Five Pennies, and Career.  Nominated for two 1960 films, Pepe in color, and The Facts of Life in black-and-white, she won for the latter.

The winningest woman in Oscar history at seven wins would go another thirteen nominations before winning her eighth and last.  She was passed over for Pocketful of Miracles, My Geisha, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, A New Kind of Love, Wives and Lovers, Love with the Proper Stranger, What a Way to Go!, A House Is Not a Home, Inside Daisy Clover, The Slender Thread, The Oscar, Sweet Charity, and Airport before winning again for 1973’s The Sting.

Head’s final nominations were for 1975’s The Man who Would Be King and 1977’s Airport ’77.  Her subsequent career was spent mostly on TV with such productions as 1978’s Little Women and Return Engagement, and 1979’s Women in White.  Her last film, 1982’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid was released posthumously.

Edith Head died October 24, 1981 at 82.  A photograph of her working on a dress design appears on one stamp of a sheet of 10 USA 37¢ commemorative postage stamps, issued 25 February 2003, celebrating American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes. The stamp honors costume design.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

ALL ABOUT EVE (1950), directed by Jospeh L. Mankiewicz

 Head won her third Oscar for 1950’s Best Picture winner primarily for the dresses she designed for the film’s two female stars, Bette Davis and Anne Baxter.  The party dress that Davis wears as she poses on the stairs of her penthouse to advise her gathering to fasten their seatbelts, is almost as sensational as the film’s starry cast which included Davis as a fading Broadway Star, Baxter as the up-and-comer who wanted what she had, George Sanders as a vicious Broadway columnist, Celese Holm as the loyal wife of Davis’ favorite playwright, Thelma Ritter as Davis’ wisecracking maid, and Marilyn Monroe as a graduate of the Copacabana school of acting.

A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951), directed by George Stevens

Head’s fourth Oscar was won primarily for her her design of the iconic gown worn by Elizabeth Taylor in this second film version of Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy. Taylor plays the girl from a wealthy family that protagonist Montgomery Clift falls for to the detriment of clingy poor girl Shelley Winters.  Taylor’s role in Josef von Sternberg’s 1931 version was played by Frances Dee, Clift’s by Phillips Holmes, and Winters’ by Sylvia Sidney.  This version was by far the more popular but suffers from the cutting of most of Anne Revere’s role of Clift’s mother, a pivotal character in the film, after the great character actress became blacklisted.  

ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953), directed by William Wyler

Head’s Oscar winning costume designs are once again a standout although they are somewhat overshadowed this time by the production design, cinematography and other aspects of the production.  Most of what we remember, however, is the emergence of a radiant new star  named Audrey Hepburn as the runaway princess who spends the night with reporter Gregory Peck and photographer Eddie Albert.  The film, which also won Oscars for Best Actress and Best Story.  It was also nominated for Best Picture, Supporting Actor, Director, Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography, and Film Editing.

SABRINA (1954), directed by Billy Wilder

Audrey Hepburn’s little black party dress is what made Head the only Oscar winner for the film out of its six nominations.  Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress, Wilder for Best Director and the film was also nominated for Best Screenplay, Cinematography, and Art Direction.  Although audiences, critics, and Oscar voters were taken with Hepburn, they were not as enamored of her co-stars, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden who fared better with their roles that year’s Bogart in The Caine Mutiny and Holden in Executive Suite, The Country Girl and The Bridges at Toko-Ri.

THE STING (1973), directed by George Roy Hill

 Although most of Head’s praise as well as her prizewinning was attributed to the design of women’s games, but for her eighth win, the emphasis was on the suits she designed for the mostly male cast beginning with stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford.  Nominated for ten Oscars, the film won seven including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Film Editing, and Score in addition to Head’s win.  It was also nominated for Best Actor (Redford), Cinematography, and Sound.  The supporting cast included Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston, and Eileen Brennan.

EDITH HEAD’S OSCAR WINS

The Heiress (1949) – Oscar – Best Costume Design Black-and White

Samson and Delilah (1950) –Oscar – Best Costume Design – Color

All About Eve (1950) – Oscar -Best Costume Design Black-and White

A Place in the Sun (1951) – Oscar -Best Costume Design Black-and White

Roman Holiday (1953) – Oscar -Best Costume Design Black-and White

Sabrina (1950) – Oscar -Best Costume Design Black-and White

The Facts of Life (1960) – Oscar -Best Costume Design Black-and White

The Sting (1973) – Oscar -Best Costume Design