Australia's most prolific Oscar winner was born Orry George Kelly to Manx tailor William Kelly and his Sydney-born wife Florence Evaline Purdue Kelly. He showed an early talent for fashion and the visual arts, later becoming a tailor's apprentice and window-dresser in Sydney. He probably studied painting in France (the mutual reception between Jupiter in Libra & Venus in Sagittarius indicating the travelling artist) before reaching New York in 1923 with the aim of acting professionally. He shared a Manhattan apartment with Archie Leach (later known as Cary Grant) - their parties becoming notorious among gay society at the time... Tapping into his Neptune-in-Cancer, 'Orry-Kelly' entered the film industry in the very early 1930s, making Hollywood his home and turning to costume design. For three decades he designed gowns for some of the world's most famous and glamorous women, including Olivia de Havilland, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Stanwyck. The openly and flamboyantly gay designer won three Oscars for Best Costume Design (in 1953, 1958, 1960), for his work in the films An American in Paris (1951), Les Girls (1957), and Some Like It Hot (1959).
references Greenberg, Joel. 'Kelly, Orry George (1897 - 1964)' Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14, Melbourne University Press, 1996, pp 614-615. Maddox, Garry and Alexa Moses. "Australian Oscar champion you've never heard of" Sydney Morning Herald 23 March 2002: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/03/22/entlexoscar23.htm "Orry-Kelly" Internet Movie Database.
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