Bob Mackie

American designer who made the fantastic gown that Cher wore to the Oscars in 1985. He began a line of ready-to-wear clothes in 1982 that was marked by mystique, beads, and glamour. The winner of seven Emmys, Mackie became a TV workhorse on "The Carol Burnett Show," creating some 50 costumes every week of the shows 11-year run. The boyish-looking charmer loved clothes from the time he was a kid and had the uncanny ability to suit a star according to her coloring, body type and personality. Some of his most famous clients included Carol Burnett, Cher, Raquel Welsh, Joan Collins, and Diana Ross. He is responsible for the high camp luxury design of the soap spoof "Fresno," a miniseries that came out in November 1986. He was a designer of wardrobes for both the stage and screen for 25 years. An only child of parents who divorced when he was two, Bob was raised primarily by his paternal grandparents, who encouraged him to draw. When he discovered the movies, he was enchanted and would go home to draw what he'd seen. After high school he attended the prestigious institute, Chouinard, but dropped out at 19, already married to Marianne Wolford. They divorced in 1963. Mackie was discovered by legendary costumer Edith Head in 1961 while working as a novice designer at Paramount Studios. He rose rapidly in the business, winning six Emmy Award plus Oscar nominations for designs seen in "Funny Girl," "Lady Sings the Blues" and "Pennies from Heaven." He lived with business partner Raymond Aghayan and had a gay son, Robin, who lived with him in the guest house behind the main house. Robin started doing drugs at 15 and in early 1989, was diagnosed with AIDS. With helpless grief, Mackie stood by as Robin died at the age of 33, March 1993. In early 1993 he was over a million dollars in debt, so he sold his $850 thousand Beverly Hills mansion and L.A. studio. He also allegedly owed a lot of money to the Gambino crime family, roughly a million dollars. Struggling to get his career back on track, he settled in a three-bedroom town house in Hollywood. A new book released on 23 September 1999, with 2,000 revelers at Manhattan's Fashion Institute of Technology, is a retrospective of his 30-year career. Link to Wikipedia biography