Florence Klotz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Florence Klotz (birth name Kathrina E. Klotz[1], [2]) (b. October 28, 1920, Brooklyn - d. November 1, 2006, Manhattan) was a Tony Award-winning costume designer on Broadway and film.
Contents |
[edit] Career
After graduating from Parsons School of Design, Klotz (known as "Flossie" to her friends) went to work painting fabrics for Brooks Costumes.
Klotz began her career in 1951 as an assistant to Irene Sharaff, who designed the costumes for Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I.
She also worked with Jerome Robbins, designing costumes for Madama Butterfly for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the film version of A Little Night Music. She became friendly with actress Elizabeth Taylor on the set of this last venture, for which Klotz was nominated for an Academy Award — Taylor asked Klotz to design the lavender dress she wore for her wedding to Senator John Warner in 1976.
Other musicals she designed for included City of Angels, On the Twentieth Century, It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman and The Little Foxes.
[edit] Tony Awards
All of the Tony Awards Klotz won were for musicals produced by Hal Prince with whom she had a long association.
- 1995: Show Boat
- 1993: Kiss of the Spider Woman
- 1985: Grind
- 1976: Pacific Overtures
- 1973: A Little Night Music
- 1972: Follies
In addition to her Tonys, Klotz won five Drama Desk Awards, three L.A. Critic Circle Awards, and two Outer Critics Circle Awards. In 2002, she received the Patricia Zipprodt Award from the Fashion Institute of Technology; and in 2005, she won the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award.
[edit] Death
Klotz died on November 1, 2006, aged 86, at her home in Manhattan of cardiac arrest which caused heart failure.
Klotz is survived by her niece, Suzanne DeMarco; her companion, the producer and stage manager Ruth Mitchell, died in 2000 ([3]).
[edit] Quote
“I thought it was so glamorous”, she recalled in a 1981 interview with The Washington Post. “I didn’t smell the greasepaint, but I was hooked.”
