Tony Walton

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Anthony John Walton
Background information
Born	October 24, 1934
Origin	Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK
Occupation(s)	director, set designer, costume designer

Tony Walton (born Anthony John Walton, 24 October 1934) is an English Oscar, Tony and Emmy-winning set and costume designer.

Walton was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. He began his career in 1957 with the stage design for Noel Coward's Broadway production of Conversation Piece. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s he designed for the New York and London stage. He entered motion pictures as costume designer and visual consultant for Mary Poppins in 1964, for which he received an Oscar nomination.

His awards include an Oscar for All That Jazz in 1980 and an Emmy for the acclaimed 1985 TV version of Death of a Salesman. He has received many Oscar, Emmy and other nominations, including BAFTA nominations for costume and set design for Murder on the Orient Express in 1975 and Oscar nominations for both costume design and set direction/art direction for the motion picture version of The Wiz in 1979.

[edit] Broadway Productions and Others

Pippin, 1972 (Tony and Drama Desk Awards)
Shelter, 1973 (Drama Desk Award)
Chicago, 1975
Sophisticated Ladies, 1981
The Real Thing, 1984
Hurlyburly, 1984
I'm Not Rappaport, 1985
House of Blue Leaves, 1986 (Tony and Drama Desk Awards)
The Front Page, 1986
Social Security, 1986 (Drama Desk Award)
Anything Goes, 1987
Grand Hotel, 1989;
Six Degrees of Separation, 1990
The Will Rogers Follies, 1991
Death and the Maiden, 1992
Conversations With My Father, 1992
Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, 1992
Guys and Dolls, 1992 (Tony and Drama Desk Awards)
Tommy Tune Tonight, 1992
She Loves Me, 1993
A Grand Night For Singing, 1993
Laughter on the 23rd Floor, 1993
Picnic, 1994
A Christmas Carol, NYC, 1994
Company, 1995
Moonlight, 1995
A Fair Country, 1996
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, 1996
The Shawl, 1996
Steel Pier, 1997
King David, 1997
1776, 1997
The Cripple of Inishmaan, 1998
Annie Get Your Gun, 1999
On Raftery's Hill, 2000
Uncle Vanya, 2000
The Man Who Came to Dinner, 2000
Taller Than a Dwarf, 2000
Our Town, 2002
Nobody Don't Like Yogi, 2003
The Boy Friend, 2003 (Bay Street Theatre)
The Boy Friend, 2005 (National Tour)
Well, 2006

More recently, Walton has diversified into directing, with productions of:

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, 1996
Noel Coward In Two Keys, 1996
Shaw's Major Barbara, 1997
Missing Footage, 1999
Ooops! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show, 1999
Where's Charley?, 2004
After the Ball, 2004
Busker Alley, 2006

[edit] Trivia

Walton married Julie Andrews in 1959, and the two had a daughter (Emma Walton). They divorced in 1967 and Walton married Gen LeRoy in 1975.
Walton gave the Sherman Brothers the insight and inspiration for the Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day songs as is explained in the Sherman Brothers' joint autobiography, Walt's Time:

Walt (Disney) said 'Read the Pooh stories and let me know what you think.' We tried, but the stories just weren't coming through to us. At that time designer Tony Walton was working on Poppins. He was English-born, and he was about our age, so we asked him to give us some insight on the Pooh character. His eyes lit up. 'Winnie the Pooh?', he said. 'I love Winnie the Pooh! Of course I'll help you!' Three hours later, he was still talking about Pooh, inspiring us no end. He explained how he had been a chubby little boy, and had felt very insecure. But Winnie the Pooh was his buddy, because Pooh was pudgy and proud of it. Pooh was probably the only character in the world who exercised to gain weight! Pooh was wonderful, lovable friend who would never let you down or turn his back on you. Soon, we started to fall in love with Pooh ourselves. Our songs for Winnie the Pooh were truly a love affair, thanks to A.A. Milne and to Tony Walton. ^[1]