Biography

Adrian

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Born
March 3, 1903 · Naugatuck, Connecticut, USA
Died
September 13, 1959 · Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (heart attack)
Birth name
Adrian Adolph Greenberg

Biography

Adrian Adolph Greenburg, born in Naugatuck, Connecticut, March 3, 1903, to Gilbert and Helena (Pollack) Greenburg. He began his professional career while still attending the New York School for Fine and Applied Arts by contributing to the costumes for "George White's Scandals" in 1921. He is credited for that production by his created name of Gilbert Adrian, a combination of his father's first name and his own. He transferred to NYSFAA's Paris campus in 1922 and while there was hired by Irving Berlin. In the fall of 1922 he returned to New York and began work on Berlin's 1922-1923 edition of "The Music Box Revue". Adrian continued to work on the Berlin reviews as well as other theatrical and film projects.

His big film break was designing costumes for Mae Murray in her first M.G.M. film, The Merry Widow (1925). He was then hired by Natacha Rambova to design for the independent films of her husband, Rudolph Valentino. In mid-1925, after designing costumes for the prologue of "The Gold Rush" at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Adrian was hired by Cecil B. DeMille to become head of the wardrobe department at his new studio. When DeMille moved to M.G.M. in 1928, Adrian moved there also. When his DeMille contract expired, Adrian signed with M.G.M. and remained with that studio until 1942.

He opened his own very successful couture business and continued to do some films until such time as his business expanded, with a salon in New York as well as Beverly Hills. His fashions were sold in department stores around the U.S. and he was the recipient of the 1944 Coty Award for Fashion. He also received a Lord & Taylor award for his work on Marie Antoinette (1938) in 1938 and a special award from Parsons, the successor to NYSFAA. His last film was Lovely to Look At (1952). He retired from the fashion industry in 1952 after a heart attack. He relocated to Brazil with his wife (since 1938) actress Janet Gaynor and their son, Robin. He returned to the U.S. to do "Grand Hotel", a musical with Viveca Lindfors and Paul Muni and his last career credit was the costume design for the Broadway musical "Camelot". He was working on this production when he died of a heart attack on September 13, 1959. Adrian never received an Oscar.
- IMDb mini biography by: RikAlAd@aol.com

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Trivia

Credited with creating the padded shoulder fashion trend that became a trademark of actress Joan Crawford.
Despite never being even nominated for an Academy Award, he is considered by most as Hollywood's greatest costume designer.
His costumes for the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz (1939) were made entirely of felt.
Did not get the opportunity to win an Oscar because the first Academy Award for Costume Design wasn't handed out before 1948, at which time he had retired already from costume design for film (with only a few exceptions, concentrating on his personal life and his own business.
In addition to selling a million copies of Joan Crawford's white, ruffled organdy gown, Edith Head called Letty Lynton (1932), the film this dress is from, the most influential film in cinema fashion history.