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Irene Sharaff, Designer, 83, Dies; Costumes Won Tony and Oscars

Irene Sharaff, Designer, 83, Dies; Costumes Won Tony and Oscars
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August 17, 1993, Section B, Page 6Buy Reprints
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Irene Sharaff, who designed costumes for Hollywood and Broadway, winning five Academy Awards and a Tony, died yesterday at New York Hospital in Manhattan. She was 83 and lived on the Upper East Side.

The immediate cause was congestive heart failure, said Jean B. Angell, a close friend who was also her lawyer. Ms. Angell said Ms. Sharaff had had emphysema.

In a career of more than half a century, Ms. Sharaff designed costumes for actors including Yul Brynner, Gertrude Lawrence, Gypsy Rose Lee, Judy Garland, Mary Astor, Pearl Bailey, Anouk Aimee, Gene Kelly, Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr., Elizabeth Taylor and Rex Harrison. 60 Shows, 40 Films

She also worked in television, ballet, nightclubs and fashion illustration.

Her last Broadway show was "Jerome Robbins's Broadway," a 1989 musical that won six Tonys. She recreated costumes for several scenes from "The King and I" and "West Side Story."

Ms. Sharaff (pronounced SHAR-eff) designed costumes for more than 60 stage productions, including "As Thousands Cheer," "Lady in the Dark," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "Idiot's Delight." Sometimes she designed the sets as well. She won two Donaldson Awards and a Tony.

She also worked on 40 films and received 15 Oscar nominations. She often designed clothes for both stage and screen productions of the same work, as with "Funny Girl," "Flower Drum Song," "West Side Story" and "The King and I."

Her sumptuous array of vibrant Thai silk costumes for "The King and I" in 1951 created a sensation in the world of high fashion and interior decoration, and she won her Tony for her designs. Within a few years of the show, silk became Thailand's best-known export. Seeing Blocks of Color

Ms. Sharaff, who once wanted to be a painter, said she saw everything in blocks of color, "rather like painting a picture." Speaking of her work, Ms. Sharaff said in a 1970 interview, "If I have a leitmotif, a logo, I suspect it is associated with the colors I prefer -- reds, pinks, oranges -- and with a certain cut which seems to reappear in many of the shows and films I've worked on."

"You can acquire chic and elegance, but style itself is a rare thing," Ms. Sharaff said in a 1967 interview. "The only theater people I can think of who have it are Audrey Hepburn and Betty Bacall. The one who had it to the greatest degree was Gertie Lawrence. She could make a sackcloth tied with a belt look stylish."

She first attracted attention in 1932, as designer of scenery and costumes for Eva Le Gallienne's "Alice in Wonderland." Two years later, the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo shattered its nationalist tradition by hiring her to design the scenery and costumes for "Union Pacific" and Stravinsky's "Poker Game." She also designed costumes for American Ballet Theater and the New York City Ballet.

Her first Oscar honored her scenery and costumes in the ballet sequence in M-G-M's 1951 production of "An American in Paris." In 1956, she won another for her work on Samuel Goldwyn's 1956 film of "The King and I."

Her other Oscars were for "West Side Story" in 1961, "Cleopatra" in 1963 and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" in 1966. She also worked on "Madame Curie," "The Best Years of Our Lives," "Meet Me in St. Louis," "Guys and Dolls," "Brigadoon," "Justine," "Porgy and Bess" and "Hello, Dolly!" Began as Fashion Illustrator

Ms. Sharaff was born in Boston and studied at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, the Arts Students League and the Grande Chaumiere in Paris. For a time she did fashion illustrations for American Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and other magazines.

After her debut with "Alice in Wonderland," she was regularly represented on Broadway with one or more productions a season until 1972. In 1976, she designed the costumes and scenery for a new production of "Fanfare" by the New York City Ballet. Her last films were "The Other Side of Midnight" (1977) and "Mommie Dearest" (1981).

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 6 of the National edition with the headline: Irene Sharaff, Designer, 83, Dies; Costumes Won Tony and Oscars. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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