Freddy Wittop
Freddy Wittop (July 26, 1911 - February 2, 2001) was a Tony Award-winning costume designer. He also enjoyed secondary careers as a dancer and college professor.
Born Frederick Wittop Koning in Bussum, Holland, Wittop emigrated with his family to Brussels, where he apprenticed at the age of thirteen with the resident designer at the Brussels Opera. Moving to Paris in 1931, he designed for the Folies Bergère and other music halls, creating costumes for Mistinguett and Josephine Baker, among others. He studied Spanish dance and, as Frederico Rey, began a professional career that led to international acclaim as he and his first partner, La Argentinita, performed world-wide. He also toured with Jose Greco and Tina Ramirez.
In 1942, Wittop designed costumes for the Ice Capades, George Abbott's Broadway musical Beat the Band, and Lucille Ball for her film melodrama The Big Street. Following a stint dressing show girls and dancers at the Latin Quarter nightclub in New York City, he formed his own dance company in 1951 and for the next seven years toured the US and Europe. He returned to theatre design at the behest of director Harold Clurman, who saw his show and asked him to design his 1959 Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House. He actively worked in New York for the next fourteen years.
In 1973, Wittop retired to Ibiza, where he remained for eleven years before returning to New York to work on two more projects before settling in Tequesta, Florida. He frequently traveled to Athens, Georgia, where he held a position as adjunct professor in the school of drama at the University of Georgia.
Wittop died at age 89 at the JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, Florida, shortly after being chosen as the 2001 recipient of the Theatre Development Fund's Irene Sharaff Award for "lifetime achievement in theatrical costume design." His original sketches have been showcased in museums and sold in art galleries throughout the country.
Notable productions
- Wind in the Willows (1985)
- The Three Musketeers (1984)
- Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen (1970)
- A Patriot for Me (1969)
- Dear World (1969)
- George M! (1968)
- Breakfast at Tiffany's (1966)
- I Do! I Do! (1966) [Original, Musical, Comedy]
- On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965)
- The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd (1965)
- Bajour (1964)
- Hello, Dolly! (1964)
- Subways Are For Sleeping (1961)
- Carnival! (1961)
Awards and nominations
- 1971 Tony Award (Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen, nominee)
- 1970 Tony Award (A Patriot for Me, nominee)
- 1970 Drama Desk Award (A Patriot for Me, winner)
- 1968 Tony Award (The Happy Time, nominee)
- 1967 Tony Award (I Do! I Do!, nominee)
- 1965 Tony Award (The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd, nominee)
- 1964 Tony Award (Hello, Dolly!, winner)