Dorothy Jeakins

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 MacdonaldWright 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 Magnins 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 longterm contract with any one studio She worked steadily for the next thirtynine 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 womens 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 Its my cue and my private passion