CINEFILER

Dorothy Jeakins

Born
January 11, 1914
Died
November 21, 1995
Dorothy Jeakins (January 11, 1914 – November 21, 1995) was an American costume designer. Born in San Diego, California, she attended public school in Los Angeles from first grade through high school. As a senior at Fairfax High School, she was offered a scholarship to study at the Otis Art Institute (now known as Otis College of Art and Design). She also attended the Art Students League of Los Angeles, under Stanton Macdonald-Wright. She was later awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Otis College in 1987. Jeakins worked on WPA projects and as a Disney artist in the 1930s. Her fashion career began as a designer at I. Magnin's, where she was spotted by director Victor Fleming. Hired as a sketch artist for Joan of Arc (1948), Jeakins worked on the costumes with Barbara Karinska and shared an Oscar with her in the color category. This was the first Oscar ever awarded for costumes outside the black and white category. Jeakins was unusual in that she freelanced, never signing a long-term contract with any one studio. She worked steadily for the next thirty-nine years, winning another two Oscars, for Samson and Delilah (1949, shared with Edith Head and others), The Night of the Iguana (1964), and another 12 nominations. She designed period costumes for The Ten Commandments (1956), The Music Man (1962), The Sound of Music (1965), Little Big Man (1970), The Way We Were (1973), Young Frankenstein (1974) and The Dead (1987). Her modern dress excursions included Niagara (1953), Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), South Pacific (1958), and On Golden Pond (1981). Jeakins also worked on stage productions, including South Pacific (in which Motley was the principal costume designer), King Lear, Winesburg, Ohio, and The World of Suzie Wong (for which she received her third Tony nomination), and such television productions as the 1957 production of Annie Get Your Gun, and Mayerling. For ten years beginning in 1953, she served as designer for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. In 1961 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Japan. She spent a year there, studying theater costume. From 1967 to 1970, Ms. Jeakins was Curator of Costumes and Textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 1987, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and excellence of their work, have helped to expand women's roles within the entertainment industry. Jeakins, who retired in 1990, once summed up her designing: "I can put my world down to two words: Make beauty. It's my cue and my private passion."
Academy Awards
Best Costume Design, Color
Best Costume Design, Black-and-White
Known For
The Ten Commandments
(1956)
Costume Design
The Sound of Music
(1965)
Costume Design
Samson and Delilah
(1949)
Costume Design
Young Frankenstein
(1974)
Costume Design
Niagara
(1953)
Costume Design
The Unforgiven
(1960)
Costume Design
True Grit
(1969)
Costume Design
The Children's Hour
(1961)
Costume Design
The Postman Always Rings Twice
(1981)
Costume Design
Joan of Arc
(1948)
Costume Design
On Golden Pond
(1981)
Costume Design
Fat City
(1972)
Costume Design
The Big Sky
(1952)
Costume Design
The Night of the Iguana
(1964)
Costume Design
Elmer Gantry
(1960)
Costume Design
The Molly Maguires
(1970)
Costume Design
Full Filmography
Costume & Make-Up
Joan of Arc
(1948)
Costume Design
Samson and Delilah
(1949)
Costume Design
Cyrano de Bergerac
(1950)
Costume Design
Les Miserables
(1952)
Costume Design
The Big Sky
(1952)
Costume Design
The Greatest Show on Earth
(1952)
Costume Design
Belles on Their Toes
(1952)
Costume Design
The Outcasts of Poker Flat
(1952)
Costume Design
My Cousin Rachel
(1952)
Costume Design
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
(1953)
Costume Design
Niagara
(1953)
Costume Design
Inferno
(1953)
Costume Design
Treasure of the Golden Condor
(1953)
Costume Design
White Witch Doctor
(1953)
Costume Design
City of Bad Men
(1953)
Costume Design
Three Coins in the Fountain
(1954)
Costume Design
Friendly Persuasion
(1956)
Costume Design
The Ten Commandments
(1956)
Costume Design
Mayerling
(1957)
Costume Design
Annie Get Your Gun
(1957)
Costume Design
South Pacific
(1958)
Costume Design
Desire Under the Elms
(1958)
Costume Design
Green Mansions
(1959)
Costume Design
The Unforgiven
(1960)
Costume Design
Let's Make Love
(1960)
Costume Design
Elmer Gantry
(1960)
Costume Design
The Children's Hour
(1961)
Costume Design
All Fall Down
(1962)
Costume Design
The Music Man
(1962)
Costume Design
The Night of the Iguana
(1964)
Costume Design
The Best Man
(1964)
Costume Supervisor
Ensign Pulver
(1964)
Costume Design
The Sound of Music
(1965)
Costume Design
The Fool Killer
(1965)
Costume Design
Hawaii
(1966)
Costume Designer
Any Wednesday
(1966)
Costume Design
The Flim-Flam Man
(1967)
Costume Design
Reflections in a Golden Eye
(1967)
Costume Design
Finian's Rainbow
(1968)
Costume Design
The Fixer
(1968)
Costume Design
The Stalking Moon
(1968)
Costumer
True Grit
(1969)
Costume Design
The Molly Maguires
(1970)
Costume Design
Fuzz
(1972)
Costume Design
Fat City
(1972)
Costume Design
The Way We Were
(1973)
Costume Design
Young Frankenstein
(1974)
Costume Design
The Yakuza
(1974)
Costume Design
The Savage Is Loose
(1974)
Costume Design
The Hindenburg
(1975)
Costume Design
I Will, I Will...For Now
(1976)
Costume Design
Audrey Rose
(1977)
Costume Design
The Betsy
(1978)
Costume Design
North Dallas Forty
(1979)
Costume Design
Love and Bullets
(1979)
Costume Design
On Golden Pond
(1981)
Costume Design
The Postman Always Rings Twice
(1981)
Costume Design
The Dead
(1987)
Costume Designer
Acting
Data provided by TMDB