Gile Steele

Gile Steele (September 24, 1908 — January 16, 1952) was a Hollywood costume designer.

Gile Steele
Born	(1908-09-24)September 24, 1908 Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Died	March 16, 1952(1952-03-16) (aged 43) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale, California)
Occupation	Costume Designer
Years active	1938–1952
Known for	Costume Designer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures
Awards	Academy Award for Best Costume Design x 2

His career began at MGM in 1938 with one of his first assignments being the Norma Shearer film Marie Antoinette. He also worked on many of the company's prestige pictures including Pride and Prejudice and Boom Town (both 1940), Blossoms in the Dust and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both 1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942) and Madame Curie (1943). He was one of the first nominees when the category for Best Costume Design was introduced at the Academy Awards in 1948 for his work on The Emperor Waltz.

He won the Oscar for Best Costume design for The Heiress in 1949^[1] and Samson and Delilah in 1950.^[2]

Steele was also an amateur painter of some note.^[3]

Death

Steele died around midnight on the evening of January 15-16, 1952. He was driving on Sepulveda Blvd. in Santa Monica^[4] when a wall of floodwater 15 feet (4.6 m) high swept his car from the road and deposited it 150 feet (46 m) away^[5] in a stormwater drainage area.^[6] He drowned before rescuers could get to him.^[7]

Steele was divorced.^[7] He was survived by his former wife, Barbara Spencer,^[8] and his three young children.^[4]