Julie Harris (costume designer)

Julie Harris
Born
Diana Julie Harris

(1921-03-26)26 March 1921
London, England
Died30 May 2015(2015-05-30) (aged 94)
London, England
OccupationCostume designer
Years active1947–1991

Diana Julie Harris (26 March 1921 – 30 May 2015) was an English costume designer. In a career spanning over four decades, she is recognized for her prolific work across film and television. She won an Academy Award in the category Best Costume Design for the film Darling (1965).

Career

Born in London in 1921,[1] Harris began her career in 1947 at Gainsborough Pictures with Holiday Camp, the forerunner of the Huggett family film series. During her early career, she was mentored by Elizabeth Haffenden, and went on to work for the Rank Organisation, until that studio wound down its business in the 1950s.[2]

Over the next 30 years, she worked with actors such as Jayne Mansfield, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Lauren Bacall and Alan Ladd and directors Alfred Hitchcock, Joseph Losey, Billy Wilder and John Schlesinger.[2] She made a "mink bikini" (actually made out of rabbit fur) for Diana Dors.[2] She worked steadily on feature films throughout the next three decades, hitting her stride in the 1960s, before shifting her attention to television movies until her retirement in 1991.

Harris won the Oscar for Best Costume Design for Darling in 1965, and the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design for The Wrong Box in 1967.[2] She also worked on the Beatles' first two live action feature films, A Hard Day's Night (1964), and Help! (1965), quipping that "I must be one of the few people who can claim they have seen John, Paul, George and Ringo naked."[3] She also worked on the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973) with Roger Moore, and the spoof Casino Royale (1967) with David Niven.[2] Harris also designed costumes for the Carry On film Carry On Cleo (1964), a sword and sandal spoof set in ancient Rome and Egypt,[4] described as "perhaps the best" of the series.[5]

Harris died after a brief illness from a chest infection, aged 94, on 30 May 2015.[3]

Notable credits

Awards and nominations

Award Year Category Work Result Ref.
Academy Awards 1966 Best Costume Design – Black-and-White Darling Won [6]
British Academy Film Awards 1965 Best British Costume Design – Black and White Psyche 59 Nominated [7]
1966 Best British Costume Design – Colour Help! Nominated [8]
1967 The Wrong Box Won [9]
1968 Casino Royale Nominated [10]
1977 Best Costume Design The Slipper and the Rose Nominated [11]
Saturn Awards 1978 Best Costumes The Slipper and the Rose Nominated [12]

References

  • Harper, Sue, Women in British Cinema: Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know. London: Continuum International Publishing Group 2000. ISBN 0-8264-4733-3, pp. 215–16
  1. ^ Harris, Julie. "Julie Harris". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e Botting, Josephine (June 1, 2015). "Remembering Julie Harris, costume designer for Bond and Hitchcock". British Film Institute. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Designer Julie Harris dies at 94". Belfast Telegraph. 31 May 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  4. ^ Angelini, Sergio. "Carry On Cleo (1964)". BFI Online. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  5. ^ "Carry On Films". Icon Nominations. United Kingdom: ICONS Ltd. Archived from the original on 20 April 2008. Retrieved 5 June 2009. the 30 Carry On films of producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas are among the most fondly remembered comedies in British cinema ... Perhaps the best was Carry On Cleo (1964)
  6. ^ "The 38th Academy Awards (1966) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). 4 October 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  7. ^ "18th BAFTA Film Awards". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  8. ^ "19th BAFTA Film Awards". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  9. ^ "20th BAFTA Film Awards". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  10. ^ "21st BAFTA Film Awards". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  11. ^ "30th BAFTA Film Awards". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  12. ^ "The 5th Saturn Awards (1978) Nominees and Winners". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 1, 2006. Retrieved July 22, 2018.

Further reading

Williams, Melanie (2016). "The Girl You Don't See: Julie Harris and the Costume Designer in British Cinema". Feminist Media Histories. 2 (2): 71–106. doi:10.1525/fmh.2016.2.2.71.