Biography

Oscar-winning costume designer Mary Lillian Wills was the daughter of school teacher Mary Josephine Champie (1889-1951) and family physician Dr. Euclid Clarence Wills (1883-1948). She studied at universities in New Mexico and Arizona, before moving to New York, making ends meet as a counter salesperson at Saks Fifth Avenue. Then came her big break: awarded a scholarship, Wills entered the Yale School of Art and Drama, eventually graduating with a Master’s Degree (in the process, becoming the first woman graduate from that department). Before long, Hollywood beckoned. Wills went on to work in films for forty years, beginning as a sketch artist on Gone with the Wind (1939). She mostly free-lanced, except for a spell between 1948 and 1952 when she was under contract at RKO (for Samuel Goldwyn). She became renowned as as 'the fabulous Miss Wills' for her excellence in creating authentic-looking period, dance and folk costumes for prestige films like Hans Christian Andersen (1952) and The Virgin Queen (1955). Her innate flair for fashion and glamour became known in Hollywood as ‘The Wills Touch’. Her intricate pencil sketches often included subtle backgrounds, which provided a measure of additional context. Wills won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962).

In addition to her film work, she also designed costumes for the popular Shipstad & Johnson Ice Follies (from 1962 to 1967) and for the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. She married and divorced four husbands, the last of these was Leonard Doss, who worked at Technicolor Inc. as a colour consultant for 20th Century Fox.
- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis

Mary Lillian Wills was born in Prescott, Arizona to Dr. Clarence "Doc" Wills, of Virginia, and Mary Josephine Champie, of Arizona. She grew up in Arizona, California and New Mexico. Her father was a doctor to the Reservation in Prescott and her mother was a school teacher, and then later, her father opened a theater in San Diego County. She attended ASU, and then the University of New Mexico where she was mentored by early members of the Santa Fe Artists Colony.

Miss Wills went to New York, worked as a counter girl at Saks Fifth Avenue, before getting a scholarship to Yale University Art & Drama school where she received a Master's Degree in Costume Design and was the first woman to graduate from that department.

She was married and divorced 4 times. First to Lloyd Laughlin, Lake Forest, Illinois, heir of the Elgin Watch Company, 2nd marriage was annulled, and 3rd marriage was to Charles Bernard Brooks of Taos, New Mexico. They had two daughters, Marri (Mary) Champie, and Katherine "Kitsie" Wills. Her 4th marriage was to Leonard Doss, a color consultant and interior designer who worked for 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney.

She designed costumes for over 53 motion pictures, and three live shows. She was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, and received the Oscar for color costume design in 1962 for "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grim (MGM). Her other nominations were for The Virgin Queen, Cape Fear, Teenage Rebel, A Certain Smile, The Passover Plot, and Diary of Anne Frank. Other well-known films she worked on were Hans Christian Anderson, Uncle Toms Cabin, Carousel, Paint Your Wagon, Camelot, Funny Girl and A Wonderful Country. She was nicknamed by Samuel Goldwyn's wife, Francis, The Fabulous Miss Wills, because of her talent with period costumes. She designed the stunning costumes for The Shipsted & Johnson Ice Follies for 7 years, when it was the number 1 live show in the world, and for The Bufflao Bill Wild West Show, and The Nutcracker Suite on Ice with Dorothy Hamil. She also designed the employee uniforms for the opening of the Space Needle in Seattle, and Magic Mountain in California.
- IMDb mini biography by: Marri Champie