Edith Head (1898-1981) is widely viewed as Hollywood's most successful costume designer, as well as one of its most colorful personalities. Head was nominated for 35 Academy Awards, won eight, and designed the costumes for several hundred films.

Edith Head's birthdate was probably October 28, 1898. All records of that time period were destroyed in a courthouse fire, and Head publicly claimed to have been born in 1907 or 1908. However, since she definitely had graduated from college, married, divorced, and worked as a teacher for several years by 1923, the later birthdates are not possible. Even her family name is uncertain; Head was the name of her first husband. One biographer, Paddy Calistro, determined that her parents were probably of Jewish heritage, which Head never acknowledged. Similar uncertainty about the details of many events continued throughout Head's long life. In a Vanity Fair feature story, Amy Fine Collins reported that the designer "obstinately...