April Ferry was an Emmy Award-winning costume designer for such films and television shows as “Rome,” “Game of Thrones,” “Big Trouble in Little China,” and “Free Willy.”
- Died: January 11, 2024 (Who else died on January 11?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 91.
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April Ferry’s legacy
Ferry’s interest in costume design grew out of her early days as a Broadway dancer. She loved watching the costume designer work during her stint with the 1953–1955 production of Charles Lederer’s “Kismet,” and she entered the design world herself after her divorce in 1968.
After working on “The Dean Martin Show” in the 1970s, Ferry finally broke into the cinematic world at the end of the decade, doing costuming for “The Rose” and “The Jerk.” In short order, she was hired to do costuming for such films as “One from the Heart” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and headed costume design for “The Big Chill.”
Ferry earned her first Emmy Award nomination in 1989 for the ABC period film “My Name is Bill W.” Almost 20 years later, she finally won the Emmy Award for her work on the critically acclaimed series “Rome.” She also earned an Oscar nomination for her designs on “Maverick” in 1994 and received a career achievement award from the Costume Designers Guild (CDG) in 2014.
Over a decades-long career, she collaborated with such filmmakers as John Carpenter, John Hughes (1950–2009), and Richard Donner (1930–2021). Her costumes can be seen in such movies as “Planes, Trains & Automobiles,” “Child’s Play,” “Free Willy,” and “Big Trouble in Little China,” which she especially enjoyed after designing the hand-woven hats and armor for the three warriors Rain, Thunder, and Lightning. More recently, she stepped in as costume designer for “Game of Thrones” during its sixth season, sharing a CDG award for that season with the show’s previous costume designer, Michele Clapton.
Ferry on how the corporate world influences art:
“Art – especially film – is being created for the dollar, instead of coming from the heart.”—from a 2007 interview with The Guardian
Tributes to April Ferry
Full obituary: The Hollywood Reporter
