Harris, Julie (1921—)

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Harris, Julie (1921—)

British costume designer. Born in London, England, in 1921; studied at the Chelsea Polytechnic.

Filmography:

Holiday Camp (1948); Once Upon a Dream (1948); Broken Journey (1949); Good Time Girl (1949); The Calendar (1949); My Brother's Keeper (1949); Quartet (1949); Under Capricorn (with Roger Furse, 1950); Trio (1951); The Clouded Yellow (1951); Highly Dangerous (1951); Traveller's Joy (1951); Mr. Drake's Duck (1951); Night Without Stars (with Balmain, 1952); Hotel Sahara (1952); Another Man's Poison (1952); Encore (1952); So Little Time (1952); Something Money Can't Buy (1953); South of Algiers (U.S., The Golden Mask, 1953); Made in Heaven (1953); Desperate Moment (1953); Turn the Key Softly (1954); Always a Bride (1954); The Red Beret (U.S., Paratroope, 1954); You Know What Sailors Are (1954); The Seekers (U.S., Land of Fury, 1955); Value For Money (1956); Cast a Dark Shadow (1956); Simon and Laura (1956); The March Hare (1957); Reach for the Sky (1957); It's a Wonderful World (1957); House of Secrets (U.S., Triple Deception, 1957); Miracle in Soho (1958); The Story of Costello (with Jean Louis, 1958); Seven Thunders (U.S., The Beast of Marseilles, 1958); The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958); The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1959); Whirlpool (1959); Sapphire (1960); North West Frontier (U.S., Flame Over India, with Yvonne Caffin, 1960); The Greengage Summer (U.S., Loss of Innocence, 1961); All Night Long (1962); We Joined the Navy (1963); The Fat Lady (1963); Tamahine (with Guy Laroche, 1964); The Chalk Garden (1964); Father Came Too (1964); Psyche 59 (1964); A Hard Day's Night (1965); Carry on Cleo (1965); Help! (1965); Darling (1965); The Wrong Box (1967); Eye of the Devil (with John Furness, 1967); Casino Royale (with Guy Laroche and Paco Rabanne, 1967); Deadfall (1968); The Whisperers (1968); Decline and Fall … of a Birdwatcher! (with Duse, 1969); Prudence and the Pill (1969); Goodbye Mr. Chips (1970); The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1972); Follow Me (U.S., The Public Eye, 1973); Live and Let Die (1975); The Slipper and the Rose (1976).

Julie Harris, born in London, England, in 1921, was costume designer for countless films. As a child, she longed to be an actress, but her parents were against the idea. Instead, she attended art school, the Chelsea Polytechnic. She then worked for the court dressmaker Reville, before joining the film industry in 1945, as an assistant in the design department under Elizabeth Haffenden at Gainsborough Studios. In 1965, Harris won an Academy Award for black and white design for the movie Darling, starring Julie Christie . (Before 1967, awards were given separately for color and black and white films.) She also received Society of Film and Television Arts (SFTA) awards for Psyche, Help!, The Wrong Box, Casino Royale, and The Slipper and the Rose.

The designer's job is to augment an actor's search for character, writes Harris. "I remember that, in The Whisperers, I was set the daunting task of transforming Dame Edith Evans into a shabby, pathetic old-age pensioner. This is even more difficult than it sounds, because there are some people who simply rise above whatever you put them in. I found a dreadful old fur coat for £1 in the Portobello Road, but when Dame Edith put it on, she still looked like Lady Bracknell."