Walter Plunkett

Walter Plunkett was born on June 5, 1902, in Oakland, California, and died on March 8, 1982, in Santa Monica, California. He is recognized as a prolific costume designer whose career encompassed more than 150 projects in the Hollywood film industry, as well as work on Broadway and for the Metropolitan Opera.

Plunkett studied law at the University of California, where he was a member of the California-Alpha chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, though his attention gravitated toward the school's theatrical group. In 1923 he relocated to New York City, where he worked as a stage actor and also pursued costume and set design. His Broadway appearances during 1923 and 1924 included the plays The Man Who Ate the Popomack and Out of the Sea. After a period spent in Greenwich Village, he returned to California, settling in Hollywood, where he initially found work as a movie extra. He can be seen dancing with the designer Irene in Erich von Stroheim's 1925 film The Merry Widow. He subsequently transitioned into costume and wardrobe work.

His first credited work as a costume designer was the 1927 film Hard-Boiled Haggerty. At RKO, Plunkett built an extensive costume and wardrobe department that became a significant studio asset, producing work that stood alongside that of contemporaries such as Travis Banton and Adrian. Among his most recognized films are Gone with the Wind, released in 1939, and Singin' in the Rain, released in 1952, the latter of which drew on and satirized his earlier work in the style of the Roaring Twenties. In 1951, he shared the Academy Award for Best Costume Design with Orry-Kelly and Irene Sharaff for An American in Paris.

Plunkett retired in 1966. In his later years he lived with his long-term partner, Lee, whom he formally adopted so that Lee could inherit his estate. He died at the age of 79.