About

Known credits:
80
Birthday:
1920-03-22
Place of birth:
Los Angeles, California, USA
Website:
N/A

Travilla

Overview

The man who draped a fringed Idaho potato sack on Marilyn Monroe for a famous snapshot - proving that she looked good in anything - was born on Catalina Island off the California coast on March 22 1920. He studied at the Chouinard School of Art in L.A., showing a precocious talent for drawing fashion design from an early age. By the time he was sixteen, he made money by selling sketches of costume designs for showgirls he had studied at burlesque houses.

Found unfit for wartime duties due to flat feet, William Travilla made his way to Hollywood and signed his first contract as costume designer at Columbia in 1941. However, during his two-year tenure he received rather few assignments and left disillusioned. Little work came his way during the next few years, until, in 1946, he was spotted in a nightclub (selling travel sketches of the South Pacific) by the actress Ann Sheridan, who became an instant admirer of his work. Sheridan persuaded Travilla to become her personal costume designer at Warner Brothers. This didn't quite come to pass, though he did design her gowns for Nora Prentiss (1947). More importantly, he notched up his first major success by winning the Academy Award for the lavish and colourful costumes of Adventures of Don Juan (1948) in conjunction with Leah Rhodes and Marjorie Best. After his three year contract was up, Travilla went on to 20th Century Fox, for what would become the most productive period of his career in the film business. At the same time, he set up his own high end fashion salon, Travilla Inc., in Los Angeles, creating several collections of elegant, award-winning designs.

Travilla dressed many established stars, from Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford, to Loretta Young. However, he is chiefly remembered for the iconic gowns, designed for Marilyn Monroe's famous hourglass shape in eight of her most popular films. These include her sexy satin number from How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), the gold lame dress with the sun ray pleats glimpsed in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and, subsequently, at the 1953 Photoplay Awards (over Travilla's objections); and, of course, the white cocktail dress famously uplifted above the subway grate in The Seven Year Itch (1955). One of three versions of the latter sold at auction for $ 4.6 million in 2011. Despite their close working relationship, Travilla later went on record describing Marilyn on a personal level as 'childlike' and plagued by feelings of inadequacy.

After his contract with Fox expired in 1956, Travilla tended to his own exclusive label, designing a collection of ready-to-wear 'California' fashion. In the 1960's, he continued to freelance, working primarily for television. He showed off a young Connie Sellecca to great effect in a murder mystery revolving around the fashion industry, fittingly titled She's Dressed to Kill (1979). Ever synonymous with a bygone era of glamour, he went on to win two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Costume Design for The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) and for Dallas (1978). An exhibition of his personal collection, under the auspices of his longtime collaborator William Sarris, went on a world tour in 2008.

Known for

Acting
1967 Valley of the Dolls: A World Premiere Voyage Actor Himself 59
Average

Costume & Make-Up
1983 The Thorn Birds Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 71
Good
1981 Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1981 Evita Peron Costume & Make-Up Costume Design N/A
N/A
1980 The Silent Lovers Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1980 The Scarlett O'Hara War Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1980 This Year's Blonde Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1980 Cabo Blanco Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1979 She's Dressed to Kill Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1968 The Secret Life of an American Wife Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1967 Valley of the Dolls Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1963 Take Her, She's Mine Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1963 Mary, Mary Costume & Make-Up Costume Designer 58
Average
1963 The Stripper Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1960 From the Terrace Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1956 Bus Stop Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1956 23 Paces to Baker Street Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1956 The Proud Ones Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1956 The Revolt of Mamie Stover Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1956 The Bottom of the Bottle Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1956 The Lieutenant Wore Skirts Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1955 The Rains of Ranchipur Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1955 The Tall Men Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1955 The Left Hand of God Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1955 How To Be Very, Very Popular Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1955 The Seven Year Itch Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 65
Fair
1955 White Feather Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1954 There's No Business Like Show Business Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1954 Three Young Texans Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1954 Black Widow Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1954 Broken Lance Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1954 The Raid Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1954 Garden of Evil Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1954 Princess of the Nile Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1954 River of No Return Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 62
Fair
1954 Hell and High Water Costume & Make-Up Costume Designer 59
Average
1953 King of the Khyber Rifles Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1953 Man in the Attic Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1953 How to Marry a Millionaire Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 63
Fair
1953 Appointment in Honduras Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1953 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 68
Fair
1953 Powder River Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1953 The Farmer Takes a Wife Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1953 Pickup on South Street Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 64
Fair
1953 The Girl Next Door Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1952 Bloodhounds of Broadway Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1952 Monkey Business Costume & Make-Up Costume Designer 61
Fair
1952 Don't Bother to Knock Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 60
Fair
1952 Viva Zapata! Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 61
Fair
1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 69
Fair
1951 Meet Me After the Show Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1951 On the Riviera Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1951 Rawhide Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1951 Bird of Paradise Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1950 American Guerrilla in the Philippines Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1950 I'll Get By Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1950 Mister 880 Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1950 No Way Out Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 60
Fair
1950 Panic in the Streets Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 61
Fair
1950 The Gunfighter Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 62
Fair
1950 The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1950 Mother Didn't Tell Me Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1950 When Willie Comes Marching Home Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1949 The Inspector General Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1949 Dancing in the Dark Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1949 Look for the Silver Lining Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1949 Flamingo Road Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 60
Fair
1948 Adventures of Don Juan Costume & Make-Up Costume Supervisor 59
Average
1948 Two Guys from Texas Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1948 Silver River Costume & Make-Up Costume Designer 58
Average
1947 My Wild Irish Rose Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1947 Escape Me Never Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1947 Cry Wolf Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1947 The Unfaithful Costume & Make-Up Costume Designer 59
Average
1947 Love and Learn Costume & Make-Up Wardrobe Designer 59
Average
1947 Nora Prentiss Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1947 The Beast with Five Fingers Costume & Make-Up Wardrobe Designer 59
Average
1943 The Woman of the Town Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 59
Average
1943 The Desperadoes Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average
1941 Fiesta Costume & Make-Up Costume Design 58
Average