Emmy-winning Wilmington costumer Peggy Farrell, known for her attention to detail, dies
Wilmington Star News
By John Staton
August 31, 2021
Peggy Farrell, the Emmy-winning costume designer who worked in film, television and Wilmington theater while operating a world-class, 30,000-square-foot costume shop in the Port City for nearly two decades, died early Sunday, Aug. 29.
She was 89.
The death was confirmed by Farrell's son, Dan Holmgren of Arizona.
"She was an incredible light to our regional theater community. She also had a huge impact on our film community, especially after she moved her costume shop down here from New York," said Shane Fernando, director of the Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College, where Fernando also serves as vice president for advancement of the arts.
"As an artist, as a designer, as an administrator, she taught me so much, from the time I was a little kid to now."
Fernando, who was with Farrell on the Saturday before she died, acted in many productions at Thalian Hall wearing Farrell's costumes. She rented out those costumes — some of which dated to the 19th century — to film and TV productions, but Fernando recalled how she gave Wilmington's theatrical community "carte blanche" to use her costumes in dozens of productions in the 1990s and 2000s.
In 1978, Farrell won her first Emmy Award for costume design for the seven-hour ABC miniseries “Holocaust” starring Meryl Streep. She followed that up with another Emmy in 1993 for “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” which shot largely in Wilmington. She liked the area so much that she moved Farrell’s Costumes, Ltd. from New York to the Port City in 1991.
Farrell's Internet Movie Database page lists 44 costume designer credits for her, stretching from the mid 1970s through the mid-2000s, when Farrell retired.
In a 2006 interview with the StarNews for a story about her retirement and the selling of her collection, Farrell said that “on some levels my work hasn’t been about costume, but about character and story ... I love history and I try to project my ideas into a mind’s-eye image of the character in his or her environment. I think on how they might dress based on who they are, where and when they lived and economic status. Costumes help actors to create the big picture, their role. Some of the pleasures of my job happen in the fitting room as each idea becomes a reality. When an actor -- man, woman or child -- looks in the mirror and can see the character they are to play, rather than themselves, that’s good.”
Holmgren, Farrell's son, described his mother as "an avid reader, No. 1. Loved history, No. 2. That's why so many productions she worked on had to do with history. She loved the research."
Farrell was born June 2, 1932, in New York City, and grew up in a show business family. Her mother, Agnes, was a wardrobe supervisor who worked on Broadway for decades, and young Peggy followed in her mother's footsteps.
Holmgren said he recalls being a child and meeting stars like Lucille Ball and Zero Mostel when they were in shows his mother was working on. He also said his mother and grandmother worked on many shows for impresario Guy Lombardo's famous Jones Beach "floating theater" on Long Island from the 1950s through the 1970s.
Farrell has many proteges, one of whom is Los-Angeles-based costume designer Alonzo Wilson, a Wilmington native who has garnered acclaim for his work on HBO’s “Treme” and other productions.
“She’s just a very humble, regular person who has a great deal of talent,” Wilson told the StarNews in 2018. “She let us do our job, but was very free with her knowledge as well ... When I became a designer I tried to become that same kind of person.”
“She did her research,” Wilson said. “And she turned that into a business. ‘Let’s get this right.’ Not just, ‘Well, this is OK.’”
Farrell could have a gruff exterior and was known for her often-humorous bluntness. But it didn't take most people long to find out that she was a kind and caring person underneath.
"She had a very, very big heart that people didn't always see," said longtime friend Joyce Fernando, who knew Farrell for more than 30 years. "I'll always remember how much she taught me. The amount of talent she had. Her big, big soft spot for children."
Farrell is survived by her son, Dan Holmgren, and a daughter, Susan Linderman of Las Vegas, as well as by multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by another daughter, Patricia Ann Lynch.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.
FARRELL, Peggy
Born: 6/2/1932, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
Died: 8/29/2021, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.
Peggy Farrell’s western – wardrobe.
The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams – 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment