CDG - The Costume Designer

Spring 2017

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38 The Costume Designer Spring 2017 Legacy BY DIANA EDEN OSANNA NORTON R OSANNA R OSANNA NORTON R NORTON Costume Designer and painter Rosanna Norton has lived in Los Angeles all her life, and attributes her career to chance. In the early 1970s, Norton was majoring in art, painting, and printmaking at UCLA, when she met her husband-to-be, Bill Norton, who was to direct a film he had written called Cisco Pike. She became both the production designer and Costume Designer for the film. As her career progressed, she chose costumes over sets. She says, "I would have been a painter, but was really lucky to get on some really good pictures, through my friendships with [directors] Brian De Palma and Terry Malick." She designed Badlands with Malick, Carrie, and Phantom of the Paradise, a film she particularly loves. Other highlights among her more than 50 film credits include The Stunt Man and TRON, for which she shared credit with Elois Jenssen and a nomination for an Academy Award in 1983. "TRON, as a sci-fi film, was not a stretch at all," says Norton. "It was a graphic novel, and my job was to realize the sketches that were already created, and figure out how to make them using techniques that had not been done at the time." She feels that designers should not be typecast, nor should age indicate any limitation be placed on their creativity or ability to do the job. Norton also wants to pay tribute to [Costume Designer] Sheila O'Brien who, she says, "Was so wonderful to me, such an inspiration, pivotal in my life. I can't thank her enough." Rosanna, at age 72, is now incredibly happy with her fam- ily (two children and five grandchildren), and with her life, painting. She says she has always been happiest "making things." Costume Illustrator Haleen Holt is very happily retired. She and her husband Craig are avid movie lovers, so much so that they have built a small home theater in their house with all the latest equipment and accumulated quite a library. She says she loves all genres with the exception of horror films. As a young woman, Holt studied Costume Design and did well, but career counselors guided her into illustra- tion. An artist friend had her contact Costume Designer Marjorie Best, who in turn had her call CDG President Al Nichol. Nichol later told Holt that Costume Designer John Truscott was interviewing for the film Camelot. She got the job! "John was a big influence on my work as an artist and designer. He could design anything and was an artist in his own right." Truscott had Holt design Guinevere's jewelry and some court ladies. Holt also had a long collaboration with Jean-Pierre Dorléac, illustrating for him for Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and Somewhere in Time. "In film," she says, "I not only get to illustrate the costumes, but I also get to contribute to the characters. I enjoy that." Raquel Welch once said of an illus- tration, "I want to look exactly like that." Before Holt retired, she was a Costume Designer for Universal Studios Japan and LEDO, Taiwan. This is Holt's second visit to the new CDG building. She recalls, as a member of the Guild in 1966, there was already a discussion of buying a building, and is pleased that goal has been realized some 50 years later. As for art projects, on and off, she is writing and illustrat- ing a children's book, but is currently busy with husband Craig and family members who live nearby. She is still in touch with Aggie Guerard Rodgers, for whom she illustrated The Color Purple and many of her films. She has loved her work and associations. Honorees H Costume Illustrator Haleen Holt is very happily retired. She H Costume Illustrator Haleen Holt is very happily retired. She H and her husband Craig are avid movie lovers, so much so H and her husband Craig are avid movie lovers, so much so that they have built a small home theater in their house with H that they have built a small home theater in their house with ALEEN HOLT The Legacy Committee of the Costume Designers Guild honored two outstanding members: Haleen Holt and Rosanna Norton at their annual Legacy Luncheon on May 21, 2017. These accomplished women have had long and varied careers in designing and costuming film and television. Both are dual-card holders in both the Costume Designers Guild and Motion Picture Costumers.

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