Albert Wolsky, 1930 – 2026

Award-winning theatrical and movie costume designer Albert Wolsky, 95, died on May 23. Wolsky was born in Paris, and during WWII he and his family were lucky enough to escape to New York. He began working as an assistant costume designer, and by 1964 was working on Broadway; his shows included Fiddler On the Roof, The Odd Couple, Illya Darling, The Sunshine Boys, They Knew What They Wanted, and The Heiress. Wolsky was working in films and TV by the 1960s, and eventually won Oscars for All That Jazz and Bugsy. His work ranged from over-the-top to everyday clothes, in such films as Popi, Lover and Other Strangers, Up the Sandbox, Harry and Tonto, Lenny, Grease, An Unmarried Woman, Manhattan, Sophie’s Choice, Star 80, To Be or Not to Be, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, She-Devil, Fatal Instinct, You’ve Got Mail, Revolutionary Road, and others too numerous to list. Wolsky once noted that “when an actor says, ‘I wouldn’t wear that,’ I answer, ‘neither would I, that’s why I call it a costume.’” He also pointed out that when it comes to winning Oscars, “What happens is the one with the corsets wins, always, always, always.” His husband, actor and dancer James Mitchell, died in 2010.