Robert Fletcher (August 23, 1922 – April 5, 2021) was an American costume and set designer. He was best known for designing costumes for major ballet and opera companies in addition to films, television specials, and New York stage plays.

Personal life

Fletcher was born in August 1922 in

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

. His father was actor

Leon Ames Leon Ames (born Harry L. Wycoff;U.S. Federal Census for 1910 for Fowler, Center Township, Benton County, State of Indiana, access via Ancestry.com January 20, 1902 – October 12, 1993) was an American film and television actor. He is best rememb ...

. As of 2018, Fletcher lived in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...

with his husband, Broadway dancer Jack Kauflin. He died there in April 2021 at the age of 98. Kauflin predeceased him.

Career

After the semester in Iowa, Fletcher moved to New York City and worked as an actor, appearing in

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's last show, ''Embezzled Heaven''. He lived in a cold-water flat with artist Ruth Russell. They had an active social life Fletcher described as "an almost constant state of party", entertaining figures including novelists

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and Anais Nin, dramatist

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, and musician

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. In 1960, Fletcher designed costumes for ''The Tempest'' in

Stratford, Connecticut Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is situated on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. Stratford is in the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was settled ...

starring

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at the

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. His work in New York extended into television; in the 1950s he was NBC's "general designer". In 1989, Fletcher moved to

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...

, intending to retire, but ended up staying active doing design for

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ...

movies and other projects in the United States, Europe, and Asia, including taking on commissions from one of his former assistants to do design work for HBO's ''Rome'' and the ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of '' A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the fir ...

'' television series. Fletcher's design archives have been donated to Harvard. Fletcher had a long association with the science fiction franchise ''

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''. He served as costume designer for the first four ''Star Trek'' feature films — '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', '' The Wrath of Khan'', '' The Search for Spock'', and '' The Voyage Home''.

Awards

In 2008, Fletcher received a Theatre Development Fund/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for his set design. He has also received three

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...

nominations for his work. Fletcher's three Tony Award nominations were for '' Little Me'' in 1963, '' High Spirits'' in 1964 and ''Hadrian VII'' in 1969. He also received a Drama Desk Award Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design for ''Othello'' in 1982.

References

External links

* * 1922 births 2021 deaths American costume designers Harvard University alumni LGBT people from Iowa {{US-film-bio-stub