Gwen Wakeling(1901-1982)
- Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Gwen Wakeling was born in Detroit. Her father was a mining engineer
whose work resulted in the family moving every few years, and she wound
up living everywhere from Seattle to Los Angeles to Prescott, Arizona.
Upon graduating high school she got a job as a fashion artist in a
department store. She soon was hired by director Cecil B. DeMille when he was
working for Pathe Studios, and he took her with him when he moved over
to Paramount Pictures. In 1933 she went to work for Fox Films as the
studio's head costume designer. In 1941 she suffered the traumas of a
death in her family and a serious illness because of a ruptured
appendix, and quit Fox the next year and became a freelancer. She later
married writer/director Henry J. Staudigl. She won an Oscar for costume design
for Samson and Delilah (1949).
