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 2018, Farrell received the Lela Thompson Award for Enduring Contribution to
Wilmington Theater at the StarNews Wilmington Theater Awards.
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
