rickee Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 A VERY talented lady has passed...costume designer, Theadora Van Runkle. I am very glad I had the great fortune of meeting her and spending the day with her during her interview for Gab Entertainment's Lucy documentary a few years back. A unique and gracious lady! She will be missed. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/arts/theadora-van-runkle-costume-designer-dies-at-83.html Theadora Van Runkle, Costume Designer, Dies at 83 By MARGALIT FOX Published: November 7, 2011 Theadora Van Runkle, a self-taught costume designer who earned an Oscar nomination for her first picture, “Bonnie and Clyde,” and whose signature outfit for Faye Dunaway’s Bonnie Parker — beret, calf-length skirt and sweater — ignited a fashion trend on the film’s release in 1967, died on Friday in Los Angeles. She was 83. Ms. Van Runkle's outfit for Faye Dunaway, with Warren Beatty in “Bonnie and Clyde,” ignited a fashion trend. The cause was lung cancer, her son, Max Van Runkle, said. A commercial artist who fell into costuming by chance, Ms. Van Runkle was known for designs that combined Hollywood glamour with historical fealty. Over three decades she dressed some of the screen’s best-known stars, including Julie Andrews and William Holden in “S.O.B.” (1981), Steve McQueen in “Bullitt“ (1968) and Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro in “New York, New York” (1977). Ms. Van Runkle’s work was associated in particular with Ms. Dunaway, whom she also costumed in “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968; miniskirts this time) and “The Arrangement” (1969). She received two more Academy Award nominations, for “The Godfather: Part II” (1974), starring Al Pacino, and “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986), starring Kathleen Turner. The daughter of Eltsey Adair and Courtney Schweppe, a son of the Schweppes carbonated-drink family, Dorothy Schweppe was born in Pittsburgh on March 27, 1928. Her parents, who were unmarried, did not stay together, and as an infant Dorothy moved to California with her mother. She began calling herself Theadora in her early 20s, and as a young woman was a department-store fashion illustrator. In the 1960s she worked briefly as a sketch artist for Dorothy Jeakins, an Oscar-winning Hollywood costume designer. Ms. Jeakins let her go after only a month (artistic envy may have been involved, Ms. Van Runkle said in interviews afterward), but later telephoned with an offer of work. “I’ve just been asked to do a little western over at Warner Brothers,” Ms. Jeakins told her, “and I recommended you.” The “little western” was “Bonnie and Clyde.” Ms. Van Runkle was terrified, she later recalled, for she had never designed a costume. But she liked history and she liked to sew, and both stood her in good stead. Many of Clyde’s suits in the film — chalk-striped, double-breasted 1930s numbers — she took from an archival image of Pretty Boy Floyd. For Bonnie, Ms. Van Runkle created outfits that were fluid, looked as though they could be packed fast should the wearer need to go on the lam, and were suffused with tomboy sexuality. But because they were deliberately unfancy, they required a bit of a sales job. “Faye thought I didn’t care how she looked,” Ms. Van Runkle told The Globe and Mail of Canada in 1989. “Faye thought I was trying to make her ugly.” Ms. Van Runkle’s other films include “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!” (1968), “Myra Breckinridge” (1970), “Nickelodeon” (1976) and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982). She won an Emmy Award in 1983 for her work on the CBS fantasy series “Wizards and Warriors.” Ms. Van Runkle’s first marriage, to Robert Van Runkle, ended in divorce, as did her second, to Bruce McBroom. A resident of Los Angeles, she is survived by two children from her first marriage, Max and Felicity Van Runkle; and a grandson. Had Ms. Van Runkle heeded the advice of Hollywood’s grande dame of design, her work on “Bonnie and Clyde” might have been forgotten long ago. As she later recounted, she was shopping nervously for the film in Beverly Hills when she ran into Edith Head, costumer to the stars and holder of a spate of Oscars. “She said, ‘What are you doing?’ ” Ms. Van Runkle recalled. “I said, ‘It’s the ’30s and they’re escaping from a bank robbery.’ ” “She said: ‘Oh darling, do everything in chiffon. You’ll have no problems.’ ” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Very impressive, so this is the lady i always confuse with the lady who did the clothes on Mame then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leenorman Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Very impressive, so this is the lady i always confuse with the lady who did the clothes on Mame then? She DID the costumes for Mame... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickee Posted November 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Very impressive, so this is the lady i always confuse with the lady who did the clothes on Mame then? Yes, Joyce is correct...Theadora did "Mame" as well many other films. (See link/story I put up earlier.) You are confusing her with Theoni V. Aldredge, who also was a costume designer and passed away earlier in the year. Both, very talented ladies. Theoni V. Aldredge, Costume Designer, Dies at 88 By WILLIAM GRIMES Published: January 21, 2011 Theoni V. Aldredge, who designed the costumes for hundreds of Broadway and Off Broadway productions, including “Annie,” “A Chorus Line” and “La Cage aux Folles,” and who won an Academy Award for her work on “The Great Gatsby,” died on Friday in Stamford, Conn. She was 88. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magster Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 A very talented lady, RIP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 She DID the costumes for Mame... So why wasn't that in her obit then? The clothes she did for Mame were sensational, Lucy never looked better on film, well, except for those turbans, LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 Yes, Joyce is correct...Theadora did "Mame" as well many other films. (See link/story I put up earlier.) You are confusing her with Theoni V. Aldredge, who also was a costume designer and passed away earlier in the year. Both, very talented ladies. Theoni V. Aldredge, Costume Designer, Dies at 88 By WILLIAM GRIMES Published: January 21, 2011 Theoni V. Aldredge, who designed the costumes for hundreds of Broadway and Off Broadway productions, including “Annie,” “A Chorus Line” and “La Cage aux Folles,” and who won an Academy Award for her work on “The Great Gatsby,” died on Friday in Stamford, Conn. She was 88. Isn't it odd that although i've confused both for years, they both passed away almost around the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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