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Phyllis Dalton, MBE (16 October 1925 – 9 January 2025) was an English costume designer. In a career spanning over four decades, she was recognised for her prolific work across film and television. She received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Saturn Award, and an Emmy Award.
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (September 2020) |
Dalton is best known for her collaborations with directors David Lean, Carol Reed, Rob Reiner, and Kenneth Branagh. She received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and won twice for Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Henry V (1989). She was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design four times, winning for The Hireling (1973).
Dalton was born in London, England on 16 October 1925. 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".[1] 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.[2] 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.[citation needed]
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 Alec Guinness and Noël Coward.
But perhaps her most memorable work may well be from her collaboration with 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.[3]
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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 Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Robin Williams, Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington and Michael Palin.
Her body of work also includes Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue (1953), John Paul Jones (1959), The World of Suzie Wong (1960), The Message and Voyage of the Damned (both 1976), The Mirror Crack'd and The Awakening (both 1980), A Private Function (1984), and her last credited work, Much Ado About Nothing (1993).
A special BAFTA tribute was held in 2012 to celebrate Dalton's contribution to British cinema.[2]
Dalton died on 9 January 2025, at the age of 99.[4]
| Award | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | 1965 | Best Costume Design – Color | Doctor Zhivago | Won | [5] |
| 1968 | Best Costume Design | Oliver! | Nominated | [6] | |
| 1989 | Henry V | Won | [7] | ||
| British Academy Film Awards | 1968 | Best Costume Design | Oliver! | Nominated | [8] |
| 1973 | The Hireling | Won | [9] | ||
| 1989 | Henry V | Nominated | [10] | ||
| 1993 | Much Ado About Nothing | Nominated | [11] | ||
| BAFTA Special Award for Craft | — | Honored | |||
| Primetime Emmy Awards | 1983 | Outstanding Costume Design for a Limited Series or a Special | The Scarlet Pimpernel | Won | [12] |
| Saturn Awards | 1987 | Best Costume Design | The Princess Bride | Won | [13] |
- Dalton was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2002 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry.[14]
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