I recently saw a marvellous documentary by Australian director Gillian Armstrong called "Women He's Undressed". It was a documentary/ biography of probably one of the most famous men from Kiama you've never heard of. His name was Orry Kelly, and he grew up in the small coastal town of Kiama (just down the coast from Wollongong) famous for its blow hole. He moved to Sydney in his late teens and later on to Hollywood where he began by painting scenery and backdrops. Soon after arriving in Los Angeles, he started designing costumes for leading ladies and would go on to be nominated for four Oscars, three of which he won for his costume designs in the following films: "An American in Paris", "Les Girls" and "Some Like It Hot". He also had a relationship with Archibald Leach (who later changed his name to Cary Grant) and was responsible for the costume designs for some estimated 280 films including "Casablanca", "Now, Voyager" and "Oklahoma!" just to name but a few. Here's a terrific site dedicated to Orry-Kelly with his sketches and biography and here's a good synopsis of the documentary "Women He's Undressed".
Above (left to right) Ingrid Bergman in an Orry-Kelly designed ensemble for "Casablanca", Bette Davis with whom he had a lasting friendship, Kay Francis in a sparkly Orry-Kelly for the film "Mandalay", Lesley Caron and Gene Kelly in "An American in Paris" and Jack Lemmon and Tony Curis in "Some Like it Hot".
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.