Gwen Wakeling
Gwen Wakeling ( born March 3, 1901 in Detroit, † June 16, 1982 in Los Angeles, actually Gwen Sewell ) was an American costume designer in film.
Life
Gwen Wakeling was born in 1901 as the daughter of a mining engineer in Detroit. Through her father's profession, she moved with her family to frequently and attended schools in Seattle, San Francisco, Prescott, Los Angeles, Berkeley and Oakland. After her high school graduation, she worked as a fashion designer in a department store. Later she studied for four years at Maurice Leloir, the curator of a museum of historical costumes in Paris. In the late 1920s she was finally discovered by director Cecil B. DeMille. DeMille then hired her as a costume designer for his films when he was still working for Pathé Studios, and took with them when he moved to Paramount Pictures. In 1933 she was commissioned by the Fox Film Corporation under contract to the studio, which merged in 1935 with 20th Century Pictures to 20th Century Fox. There she was until 1942 chief designer.
During the 1930s they most frequently created the costumes of child star Shirley Temple, such as John Ford's adventure film Wee Willie Winkie (Wee Willie Winkie, 1937). Three times she has designed glamorous gowns for film icon Rita Hayworth, so for The Queen of Broadway ( My Gal Sal, 1942), six destinies ( Tales of Manhattan, 1942) and Cover Girl ( Cover Girl, 1944). However Ideally she dressed Loretta Young a, as in the biopic The Rothschilds ( The House of Rothschild, 1934). 1942 Wakeling left 20th Century Fox for health reasons as a result of appendicitis, married the director and screenwriter Henry J. Staudigl and began working as a freelance costume designer for studios such as Columbia Pictures, United Artists, Republic Pictures, Warner Bros. and RKO Pictures.
In 1951, she won along with Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Eloise Jensson and Gile Steele an Oscar for Best Costume Design for DeMille's biblical epic Samson and Delilah ( Samson and Delilah ). Throughout her career she has worked on over 140 film productions. Multiple they also worked for director John Ford such as for Drums Along the Mohawk ( Drums Along the Mohawk, 1939), The Grapes of Wrath ( The Grapes of Wrath, 1940) and Green Was My Valley ( How Green Was My Valley, 1941). Wakeling, a founding member of the Costume Designers Guild, designed in the 1960s and costumes for many theater productions by the Civic Light Opera in Los Angeles. She died in 1982 at the age of 81 in Los Angeles.