Ann Roth
Encyclopedia
Ann Roth is an American
costume
designer
for film
s and Broadway theatre
.
Born in Hanover, Pennsylvania
, Roth was a Carnegie Mellon graduate who began her career as a scenery painter for the Pittsburgh Opera
. She intended to remain in the field of production design
until she met Irene Sharaff
at the Bucks County Playhouse
. Sharaff invited her to California
to assist her with costumes on the film Brigadoon
and suggested Roth apprentice with her for five films and five Broadway productions before setting out on her own.
Roth won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design
for The English Patient
and was nominated for Places in the Heart
, The Talented Mr. Ripley
, and The Hours
. Her more than one hundred screen credits include The World of Henry Orient
, Midnight Cowboy
, Klute
, The Day of the Locust
(for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design
), Working Girl
, Silkwood
, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
, The Mambo Kings
, The Birdcage
, Primary Colors, Cold Mountain
, Closer
, Freedomland
, The Good Shepherd
, Margot at the Wedding
, and Evening
.
Roth's dozens of stage credits include The Odd Couple
, The Star-Spangled Girl
, Purlie
, Seesaw
, They're Playing Our Song
, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
, Biloxi Blues
, Butley, The Vertical Hour
, and Deuce
.
Roth is a two-time Emmy Award
nominee for the miniseries Roanoak (1986) and Angels in America
(2003).
In 2000, the Theatre Development Fund honored Roth with the Irene Sharaff Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2003, the Hollywood Film Festival honored her with the Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design Award.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
costume
Costume
The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances...
designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
for film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s and Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
.
Born in Hanover, Pennsylvania
Hanover, Pennsylvania
Hanover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, southwest of York and north-northwest of Baltimore, Maryland.The town is situated in a productive agricultural region. The population was 15,289 at the 2010 census. The borough is served by a 717 area code and the Zip Codes of 17331-34...
, Roth was a Carnegie Mellon graduate who began her career as a scenery painter for the Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera is an American opera company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is one of two opera companies in the city, the other being Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Opera gives performances in several venues, primarily at the Benedum Center, with other performances at the...
. She intended to remain in the field of production design
Production designer
In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...
until she met Irene Sharaff
Irene Sharaff
Irene Sharaff was an American costume designer for stage and screen. Her work earned her five Academy Awards and a Tony Award.- Background :...
at the Bucks County Playhouse
Bucks County Playhouse
The Bucks County Playhouse is the State Theater of Pennsylvania, and is located in New Hope, Pennsylvania.When the Hope Mills burnt in 1790, the grist mills were rebuilt as the New Hope Mills by Benjamin Parry. ....
. Sharaff invited her to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to assist her with costumes on the film Brigadoon
Brigadoon (film)
Brigadoon is a 1954 MGM musical feature film made in CinemaScope and Ansco Color based on the Broadway musical of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli and stars Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, and Cyd Charisse...
and suggested Roth apprentice with her for five films and five Broadway productions before setting out on her own.
Roth won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design
Academy Award for Costume Design
The Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design....
for The English Patient
The English Patient (film)
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
and was nominated for Places in the Heart
Places in the Heart
Places in the Heart is a 1984 drama film that tells the story of a Texas widow who tries to keep her farm together with the help of a blind white man and an African-American man during the Great Depression...
, The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley (film)
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1999 American psychological thriller written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella. It is an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith 1955 novel of the same name, which was previously filmed as Plein Soleil .The film stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Gwyneth...
, and The Hours
The Hours (film)
The Hours is a 2002 drama film directed by Stephen Daldry, and starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris. The screenplay by David Hare is based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham....
. Her more than one hundred screen credits include The World of Henry Orient
The World of Henry Orient
The World of Henry Orient is a 1964 American comedy film based on the novel of the same name by Nora Johnson. It was directed by George Roy Hill and stars Peter Sellers, Paula Prentiss, Angela Lansbury, Tippy Walker, Merrie Spaeth, Phyllis Thaxter, Bibi Osterwald, and Tom Bosley.Filming started in...
, Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John...
, Klute
Klute
Klute is a 1971 film which tells the story of a prostitute who assists a detective in solving a missing persons case. It stars Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi and Roy Scheider. The movie was written by Andy Lewis and Dave Lewis and directed by Alan J. Pakula.Klute was the first...
, The Day of the Locust
The Day of the Locust (film)
The Day of the Locust is a 1975 American drama film directed by John Schlesinger. The screenplay by Waldo Salt is based on the 1939 novel of the same title by Nathanael West...
(for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design
BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design
The British Academy Film Award for Best Costume Design is one of the annual film awards given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.-1960s:* 1969 - Oh! What a Lovely War - Anthony Mendleson** Funny Girl – Irene Sharaff...
), Working Girl
Working Girl
Working Girl is a 1988 romantic comedy film written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It tells the inspiring story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill , working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank...
, Silkwood
Silkwood
Silkwood is a 1983 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was inspired by the true-life story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she...
, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (film)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a 1988 American film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Milan Kundera, published in 1984. Director Philip Kaufman and screenplay writer Jean-Claude Carrière show Czechoslovak artistic and intellectual life during the Prague Spring of the Communist...
, The Mambo Kings
The Mambo Kings
The Mambo Kings is a 1992 drama film starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas. Directed by Arne Glimcher in his directorial debut, the film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos...
, The Birdcage
The Birdcage
The Birdcage is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Mike Nichols, and stars Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Dan Futterman, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, and Christine Baranski. The script was written by Elaine May...
, Primary Colors, Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain (film)
Cold Mountain is a 2003 war drama film written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The film is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Charles Frazier...
, Closer
Closer (film)
Closer is a 2004 romantic drama film written by Patrick Marber, based on his award-winning 1997 play of the same name. It was produced and directed by Mike Nichols and stars Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Clive Owen...
, Freedomland
Freedomland (film)
Freedomland is a 2006 American crime drama-mystery film starring Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore. Richard Price adapted his own novel, which touches on themes of covert racism. Joe Roth directed the film.-Plot:...
, The Good Shepherd
The Good Shepherd (film)
The Good Shepherd is a 2006 spy film directed by Robert De Niro and starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, with an extensive supporting cast. Although it is a fictional film loosely based on real events, it is advertised as telling the untold story of the birth of counter-intelligence in the...
, Margot at the Wedding
Margot at the Wedding
Margot at the Wedding is a 2007 tragicomedy written and directed by Noah Baumbach.The film premiered August 31, 2007 at the 34th Telluride Film Festival.-Plot:...
, and Evening
Evening (film)
Evening is a 2007 German-American drama film directed by Lajos Koltai. The screenplay by Susan Minot and Michael Cunningham is based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Susan Minot.-Plot:...
.
Roth's dozens of stage credits include The Odd Couple
The Odd Couple
The Odd Couple is a 1965 Broadway play by Neil Simon, followed by a successful film and television series, as well as other derivative works and spin offs, many featuring one or more of the same actors. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates, one neat and uptight, the other more easygoing and...
, The Star-Spangled Girl
The Star-Spangled Girl
The Star-Spangled Girl is a comedy written by Neil Simon. The play, set in the San Francisco in the 1960s, concerns three characters: Andy, Norman and Sophie. The original Broadway cast featured Anthony Perkins as Andy, Richard Benjamin as Norman and Connie Stevens as Sophie...
, Purlie
Purlie
Purlie is a musical with a book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Gary Geld. It is based on Davis' 1961 play Purlie Victorious, which was later made into the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! and which included all of the original Broadway cast, including Ruby...
, Seesaw
Seesaw
A seesaw is a long, narrow board pivoted in the middle so that, as one end goes up, the other goes down.-Mechanics:Mechanically a seesaw is a lever and fulcrum....
, They're Playing Our Song
They're Playing Our Song
They're Playing Our Song is a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlisch.In a story based on the real-life relationship of Hamlisch and Sager, a wisecracking composer finds a new, offbeat lyricist, but initially the match is not one made in heaven...
, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a musical with a book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson and music and lyrics by Carol Hall...
, Biloxi Blues
Biloxi Blues
Biloxi Blues is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon. The second chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy, it follows Brighton Beach Memoirs and precedes Broadway Bound....
, Butley, The Vertical Hour
The Vertical Hour
The Vertical Hour is a play by David Hare. The play addresses the relationship of characters with opposing views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and also explores psychological tension between public lives and private lives. The play received its world premiere at the Music Box Theater on Broadway,...
, and Deuce
Deuce (play)
Deuce is a play by Terrence McNally. The Broadway production, directed by Michael Blakemore, starred Angela Lansbury as blue collar Leona Mullen and Marian Seldes as well-bred Midge Barker, two former successful tennis partners, now retired, who reunite to be honored at a women's quarterfinals...
.
Roth is a two-time Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominee for the miniseries Roanoak (1986) and Angels in America
Angels in America (miniseries)
Angels in America is a 2003 HBO miniseries adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name by Tony Kushner. Kushner adapted his original text for the screen, and Mike Nichols directed...
(2003).
In 2000, the Theatre Development Fund honored Roth with the Irene Sharaff Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2003, the Hollywood Film Festival honored her with the Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design Award.
Broadway nominations
- 1965 Tony Award for Best Producer of a Play (Slow Dance on the Killing Ground)
- 1976 Tony Award (The Royal Family)
- 1976 Drama Desk Award (The Royal Family)
- 1979 Tony Award (The Crucifer of Blood)
- 1985 Drama Desk Award (Design For Living)
- 1986 Tony AwardTony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
(The House of Blue Leaves) - 1997 Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
(Present Laughter)