Richard Hornung

Costume designer of many Coen brothers early films, Richard Hornung was born in Pennsylvania, on 16 February, 1950. Versatile and multi-talented, Hornung's works had a special range going from contemporary works to period pieces; from Broadway plays to films; from westerns to 20th century settings; from the colorful shirts of Nicolas Cage in Raising Arizona (1987) to Richard Nixon's tight suits in Nixon (1995), Hornung had an accomplished set of memorable works, clothes and fabrics. His first credit work was in Woody Allen's Zelig (1983), where Hornung was a costume assistant, a film that brought back 1920's-1930's costumes while presenting the story of a chameleon character. In 1987, he was already a costume designer providing wardrobe for a variety of movies such as China Girl (1987), Less Than Zero (1987) and Raising Arizona (1987), the latter being his first collaboration with Joel & Ethan Coen. With the Coens he provided costumes for their 1930's gangster story Miller's Crossing (1990); Barton Fink (1991), which earned him an Oscar nomination; and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). He also had great partnerships with Paul Schrader in Patty Hearst (1988) and Light Sleeper (1992) - working also as a production designer in the latter film; with Stephen Frears in The Grifters (1990) and Hero (1992); and with Michael Caton-Jones in Doc Hollywood (1991) and This Boy's Life (1993). Other memorable credits include Young Guns (1988), Dave (1993) and Natural Born Killers (1994). He died on 30 December, 1995 from complications of AIDS. His final work City Hall (1996) was released posthumously.