Phyllis Dalton

Phyllis Dalton (born 16 October 1925) is a British retired costume designer. In a career spanning over four decades, she is recognized for her prolific work across film and television. She has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and an Emmy Award.

Dalton gained prominence for her collaborations with directors David Lean, Carol Reed, Rob Reiner, and Kenneth Branagh. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design three times, with two wins for Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Henry V (1989). She has also received four nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design, winning for The Hireling (1973).

Career
Dalton was born in London, England. As a teenager she studied at the Ealing School of Art. After the outbreak of World War II she began training as a Wren at the code-breaking facility Bletchley Park which she said she found to be "unbelievably boring". In 1946, after being "demobbed" her grandmother entered her into a competition at Vogue Magazine where she won the opportunity to work as an assistant in the wardrobe department at Gainsborough Studios in Islington. Once there, she began cutting her teeth on films like Brian Desmond Hurst's A Christmas Carol; Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much and on Anatole Litvak's Anastasia.

Dalton gained notoriety as a costumer in the latter part of the 1950s, making a name for herself on films like Island in the Sun (1957), directed by Robert Rossen, starring James Mason and Joan Fontaine; and Our Man in Havana (1959), directed by Carol Reed, starring Sir Alec Guinness and Noël Coward.

But perhaps her most memorable work may well be from her collaboration with Sir David Lean on two of his most critically acclaimed films: Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, starring Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif; and again three years later on Dr. Zhivago starring Sharif and Julie Christie, for which she won her first Academy Award. For this particular film, Dalton and her team ended up making 3,000 individual costumes and putting together 35,000 individual items of clothing for the extras. The characters of Zhivago (Sharif) and Lara (Christie) each had approximately 90 costume combinations, and the other six other principal characters had an average of fifteen costume changes each. Because this was before CGI, by the time principal photography ended it was estimated the costume dept. had used up a total of 984 yards of fabric, 300,000 yards of thread, 1 million buttons and 7,000 safety pins.



In all, Dalton has designed costumes for more than forty films. Other notable ones include Lord Jim (1965) again with O'Toole and directed by Richard Brooks, Oliver! (1968) with Ron Moody and Oliver Reed directed by Carol Reed; and The Princess Bride (1987) directed by Rob Reiner with Cary Elwes and Robin Wright. A few of the other stars who have worn her creations include Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Emma Thompson, Robin Williams, Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington and Michael Palin.

Awards and nominations
Academy Awards

BAFTA Awards

Emmy Awards

Saturn Awards

Other honors

 * Dalton was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2002 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry.