Tony Walton

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Anthony John Walton
Born October 24, 1934 (1934-10-24) (age 73)
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 1948 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.

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[edit] Broadway productions and others

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

[edit] Inspiration for Disney's Winnie the Pooh

Walton gave the Sherman Brothers the insight and inspiration for the Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree 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 a 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] ”

[edit] Personal life

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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sherman, Robert B., Walt's Time: from before to beyond, 1998, p 68.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Scenic Design

David Folks (1947) · Horace Armistead (1948) · Jo Mielziner (1949) · Jo Mielziner (1950) · Boris Aronson (1951) · Jo Mielziner (1952) · Raoul Penè Du Bois (1953) · Peter Larkin (1954) · Oliver Messel (1955) · Peter Larkin (1956) · Oliver Smith (1957) · Oliver Smith (1958) · Donald Oenslager (1959) · Will Steven Armstrong (1962) · Sean Kenny (1963) · Oliver Smith (1964) · Oliver Smith (1965) · Howard Bay (1966) · Boris Aronson (1967) · Desmond Heeley (1968) · Boris Aronson (1969) · Jo Mielziner (1970) · Boris Aronson (1971) · Boris Aronson (1972) · Tony Walton (1973) · Eugene Lee / Franne Lee (1974) · Carl Toms (1975)
v • d • e
Tony Award for Best Scenic Design

Boris Aronson (1976) · David Mitchell (1977) · Robin Wagner (1978) · Eugene Lee (1979) · John Lee Beatty (1980) · John Bury (1981) · John Napier / Dermot Hayes (1982) · Ming Cho Lee (1983) · Tony Straiges (1984) · Heidi Landesman (1985) · Tony Walton (1986) · John Napier (1987) · Maria Björnson (1988) · Santo Loquasto (1989) · Robin Wagner (1990) · Heidi Landesman (1991) · Richard Walton (1992) · John Arnone (1993) · Bob Crowley (1994) · John Napier (1995) · Brian Thomson (1996) · Stewart Laing (1997) · Richard Hudson (1998) · Richard Hoover (1999) · Bob Crowley (2000)