John Mollo, the British costume designer whose work on Star Wars and Gandhi won Academy Awards, died on October 25, 2017, aged 86. His career joined a deep interest in military uniforms and historical dress with the practical demands of designing for film and television.
From historical adviser to costume designer
Born in London on March 18, 1931, Mollo built an early career around historical knowledge. He served as a historical adviser on productions including The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) and Barry Lyndon (1975), before receiving his first costume-designer credit on Star Wars (1977). The distinction matters: his earlier work brought historical expertise to productions, while Star Wars marked his credited work as a costume designer. Ryan Gilbey’s Guardian obituary recounts this transition.
Building a screen wardrobe for Star Wars
For Star Wars, Mollo helped translate Ralph McQuarrie’s character paintings into costumes that could be made and used on screen. As he put it, “Though I had the outline, I had to provide the detail,” in remarks reported by Gilbey’s obituary. The Guardian also describes how elements from different departments at London costumier Bermans were brought together for Darth Vader’s look; that account is the obituary’s description of the process.
Mollo spoke of color as a practical challenge in filmed costume: “Colour is very, very difficult to use in costumes,” and “Bright colours don’t work well on film, particularly reds and blues. George always goes for the authentic.” He later joked that the Star Wars creations were “really not so much costumes as a bit of plumbing and general automobile engineering” when accepting his first Oscar. These quotations are reported in Gilbey’s Guardian obituary.
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Two Oscar-winning films, two different settings
Mollo won the Academy Award for Costume Design for Star Wars at the 1978 ceremony. His second award came for Gandhi: the Academy’s official record for the 55th Academy Awards names Mollo and Bhanu Athaiya as the film’s Costume Design recipients. Gandhi was a historical biography, while Star Wars required the invention of a science-fiction wardrobe; the awards mark the range of settings his career encompassed, without implying that the two films used the same design approach. The Academy’s 1983 ceremony record lists the award recipients.
A career beyond the two Oscar winners
Mollo returned to the galaxy far, far away for The Empire Strikes Back (1980). His other screen credits included the science-fiction films Alien and Outland, as well as the historical and biographical dramas Cry Freedom and Chaplin. He also worked on the Horatio Hornblower television adaptations. The Television Academy lists three Emmy nominations associated with those productions, in 1999, 2001 and 2004. The Television Academy’s biography and record documents his television work and awards.
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Mollo’s interest in historical dress also appeared in his writing and illustration. His books included Military Fashion: A Comparative History of the Uniforms of the Great Armies from the 17th Century to the First World War and Uniforms of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. They reflect a sustained attention to uniforms beyond his film work.
For a separate account of costume design in the Star Wars universe, Trisha Biggar’s Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars discusses costume details and classic characters, including Darth Vader. It is Biggar’s book, not Mollo’s. The Academy’s overview of its Star Wars collection describes the book and the Margaret Herrick Library’s holdings, which at the time of the 2015 article included more than 200 books, periodicals, scripts and posters, alongside hundreds of photographs and other materials.
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