Richard Hornung (February 16, 1950 – December 30, 1995) was an American costume designer best known for his work with the Coen brothers on films such as The Hudsucker Proxy, Raising Arizona, and Barton Fink for which he was nominated for an Oscar. His other credits include Broadway shows

Sunday in the Park With George ''Sunday in the Park with George'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It was inspired by the French pointillist painter Georges Seurat's painting ''A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatt ...

The News (musical) ''The News'' is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Paul Schierhorn. It tells the story of the editor of a lurid tabloid newspaper and a serial killer whose actions the paper reports on. After tryouts in Florida and Connecticut, ''The News ...

, and Candida (play).

Life and career

He was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on February 16, 1950. He was an

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United ...

native. Hornung graduated from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. He later received a master's degree in costume design from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

. Prior to becoming a costume designer, he was a substitute English teacher. When he moved to New York City, he worked for various theaters, including regional,

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

, On- Broadway, and the Juilliard Drama School. He has mentored costume designers such as Mark Bridges and

Mary Zophres Mary Zophres is an American costume designer who has worked in the film industry since 1994. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design four times for ''True Grit'' (2010), ''La La Land'' (2016), ''The Ballad of Buster ...

. Zophres has since taken over as the Coen Brother's main costume designer. He died of AIDS on December 30, 1995.

Selected filmography

References

1950 births 1995 deaths American costume designers People from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania AIDS-related deaths in California {{US-film-bio-stub