Biography
Costume designer
Walter Plunkett, one of the best in the business, once referred to his colleague Orry-Kelly as "the greatest of all Hollywood designers." Born John Orry Kelly, he studied for an art career in Australia, then moved to New York in 1923, in hopes of becoming an actor. When this didn't pan out, he painted murals, drew illustrated subtitles for Fox Film Studios, and designed costumes and sets for Broadway's Schubert and George White revues. Orry-Kelly was on the Warner payroll as early as 1930. During his nearly two decades with Warners, he clothed studio divas
Bette Davis, Olivia DeHavilland and
Anne Sheridan. He later free-lanced at Fox, Universal, and MGM; while at the latter studio, he shared an Academy Award with Walter Plunkett and
Irene Sharaff for
An American in Paris (1951). He went on to receive Oscars for
Les Girls (1957) and
Some Like It Hot (1959), and earned a nomination for
Gypsy (1963). Having gowned some of Hollywood's most glamorous leading ladies, Orry-Kelly once summed up his career with a pithy "Hell must be filled with beautiful women and no mirrors." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide