Margaret Furse

Alice Margaret Furse (née Watts; 18 February 1911 – 8 July 1974) was a British costume designer. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and an Emmy Award.

Personal life

She was born to Punch magazine illustrator Arthur G. Watts and his wife, Phyllis Gordon Watts. She married art director Roger K. Furse on 4 December 1936 at Chelsea Old Church.^[1]

Career

She trained at the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now the Central School of Art and Design) and then joined Motley Theatre Design Group.^[2] She became a costume designer in films, her first film was Laurence Olivier's Henry V as assistant designer to Roger Kemble Furse.^[3] She had her own costumier business called New Sheridan House.^[2] In 1970, she was awarded an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) and had five other nominations for The Mudlark (1951), Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Scrooge (1970) and Mary, Queen of Scots (1971).^[4] She was also posthumously awarded an Emmy in 1975 for Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for "Love Among the Ruins" (ABC Theatre, 6 March 1975) (her only nomination).^[5]

Later years

Roger and Margaret Furse divorced in 1953.^[2] She remarried and remained with her second husband, the Scottish author, film and drama critic Stephen G. Watts (no relation to her parents),^[2][6] until her death from breast cancer on 8 July 1974, in Kensington, London.

A portrait is in the permanent collection of London's National Portrait Gallery. She was also painted by Gluck.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1948	Oliver Twist	David Lean
1949	The Passionate Friends
1950	Madeleine
	Night and the City	Jules Dassin	Furse only designed costumes for Googie Withers
	The Mudlark	Jean Negulesco	with Edward Stevenson
1951	I'll Never Forget You	Roy Ward Baker
1952	The Crimson Pirate	Robert Siodmak
1953	The Master of Ballantrae	William Keighley
1954	The Million Pound Note	Ronald Neame
1956	The Spanish Gardener	Philip Leacock
1957	The Secret Place	Clive Donner
	Windom's Way	Ronald Neame
1958	The Inn of the Sixth Happiness	Mark Robson
1960	Kidnapped	Robert Stevenson
1961	Greyfriars Bobby	Don Chaffey
1962	In Search of the Castaways	Robert Stevenson
1963	The Three Lives of Thomasina	Don Chaffey
1964	Becket	Peter Glenville
	A Shot in the Dark	Blake Edwards
1965	Young Cassidy	Jack Cardiff
	Return from the Ashes	J. Lee Thompson
1966	Cast a Giant Shadow	Melville Shavelson
	The Trap	Sidney Hayers
1968	The Lion in Winter	Anthony Harvey
	Great Catherine	Gordon Flemyng
1969	Sinful Davey	John Huston
	Anne of the Thousand Days	Charles Jarrott
1970	Scrooge	Ronald Neame
1971	Mary, Queen of Scots	Charles Jarrott
1973	Bequest to the Nation	James Cellan Jones
1975	Love Among the Ruins	George Cukor	Television film Posthumous release

Awards and nominations

Award	Year	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
Academy Awards	1951	Best Costume Design – Black and White	The Mudlark	Nominated	[7]
	1964	Best Costume Design – Color	Becket	Nominated	[8]
	1968	Best Costume Design	The Lion in Winter	Nominated	[9]
	1969		Anne of the Thousand Days	Won	[10]
	1970		Scrooge	Nominated	[11]
	1971		Mary, Queen of Scots	Nominated	[12]
British Academy Film Awards	1964	Best British Costume Design – Colour	Becket	Won	[13]
	1965		A Shot in the Dark	Nominated	[14]
			Young Cassidy	Nominated
	1968	Best Costume Design	The Lion in Winter	Nominated	[15]
	1970		Anne of the Thousand Days	Nominated	[16]
Primetime Emmy Awards	1975	Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design	Love Among the Ruins	Won[a]	[17]

Notes

1. Tied with Guy Verhille for The Legend of Lizzie Borden