Biography

Cecil Beaton

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Born
January 14, 1904 · London, England, UK
Died
January 18, 1980 · Broadchalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, UK (heart attack)
Birth name
Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton
Height
6′ 2″ (1.88 m)

Cecil Beaton was born on January 14, 1904 in London, England, UK. He was a costume designer, known for My Fair Lady (1964), Gigi (1958) and On Approval (1944). He died on January 18, 1980 in Broadchalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, UK.

His house is now owned by Toyah Willcox.
Renowned society photographer, educated at Harrow and St. John's College, Cambridge, though he left there without a degree in 1925. Took up photography as a hobby, while working as a clerk for his father. Eventually rose to become, for over three decades, the favorite photographer of the Royal Family. He also photographed more than 1,000 stars and luminaries of screen, stage and literature. Moreoever, he painted, wrote books and was a noted set and costume designer for theatre, ballet and opera from 1930. He even designed hotel lobbies and clubs, including the Raffles. Beaton later moved into film work, creating lavish designs for major period productions, such as "Anna Karenina", "Gigi" and "My Fair Lady".
Claimed that Greta Garbo was the only woman he had ever loved romantically.
He was created Knight Bachelor in the 1972 Queen's New Year Honours List for his services to design and photography.
He won four Tony Awards as Best Costume Designer: in 1955 for "Quadrille;" in 1957 for "My Fair Lady," a nomination shared with "Little Glass Clock;" in 1960 for "Saratoga;" and in 1970 for "Coco." He also received two other nominations: in 1960 as Best Scenic Designer (Musical) for "Sarartoga;" and in 1961 as Best Costume Designer (Musical) for "Tenderloin.".

A musical version of Pygmalion? Oh dear, I guess it will just be another "Chocolate Sholdier.
[on Katharine Hepburn] She has a face that belongs to the sea and the wind, with large rocking-horse nostrils and teeth that you just know bite an apple every day.
[on mini-skirts] Never in the history of fashion has so little material been raised so high to reveal so much that needs to be covered so badly.
[on Marilyn Monroe] She had rocketed from obscurity to become our post-war sex symbol, the pin-up girl of an age. And whatever press agentry of manufactured illusion may have lit the fuse, it is her own weird genius that has sustained her flight. Transfigured by the garish marvel of Technicolor cinemascope, she walks like an undulating basilisk, scorching everything in her path. Like Giraudoux's 'Ondine', she is only fifteen years old, and she will never die.

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