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In Remembrance: Donfeld
Donfeld, the
costume designer who was nominated for four Academy Awards has
passed away on February 2, 2007 in Temple City, CA. He was 72.
Born Donald Lee
Feld on July 3, 1934 in Los Angeles, CA, briefle attended Chouinard
Art Institute before taking a job with Capitol records designing
album covers at the age of 19. After spending several years at
Capitol, he left to work in Hollywood. One of his first jobs was
designing the costumes for Academy Award ceremony production
numbers.
In 1961 he
began working at Twentieth Century Fox, designing costumes for such
films as Sanctuary, Return To Peyton Place (both 1961)
and State Fair (1962).
Donfeld earned
his first Oscar nomination in 1962 for the downbeat romance Days
Of Wine And Roses, which starred Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick as
an alcoholic couple. His second Academy Award nomination came for
his work for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), which was
set in the world of marathon dance competitions during the
Depression. Always stressing clothing that suited each character and
historical accuracy, Donfeld received a third Academy Award
nomination for Tom Sawyer (1973) and his final nomination for
Prizzi’s Honor (1985).
Other films
that Donfeld designed for include Viva Las Vegas, Robin
And The Seven Hoods (both 1964), The Cincinnati Kid
(1965), Fun With Dick And Jane (1977), Who Is Killing The
Great Chefs Of Europe? (1978), The China Syndrome (1979),
Brainstorm (1983), Spaceballs (1987) and Next Of
Kin (1989). He also served as Jacqueline Bisset’s personal
designer for the films Inchon (1981), Class (1983) and
the 1986 television film Choices. He also designed the
costumes for Jill St. John for the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds
Are Forever.
His final film
work was for the 1993 Patrick Swayze comedy Father Hood. |
