Tony Walton

Infobox Musical artist


Name = Anthony John Walton
Background = director/set & costume designer
Born = Birth date and age|1934|10|24|df=y
Origin = Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK
Occupation = director, set designer, costume designer

Tony Walton (born Anthony John Walton, 24 October 1934) is an English Oscar, Tony and Emmy-winning set and costume designer.

Walton was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. He began his career in 1948 with the stage design for Noel Coward's Broadway production of "Conversation Piece". Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s he designed for the New York and London stage. He entered motion pictures as costume designer and visual consultant for "Mary Poppins" in 1964, for which he received an Oscar nomination.

His awards include an Oscar for "All That Jazz" in 1980 and an Emmy for the acclaimed 1985 TV version of "Death of a Salesman". He has received many Oscar, Emmy and other nominations, including BAFTA nominations for costume and set design for "Murder on the Orient Express" in 1975 and Oscar nominations for both costume design and set direction/art direction for the motion picture version of "The Wiz" in 1979.

Broadway productions and others

*"Once There Was a Russian", 1961
*"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", 1962
*"The Rehearsal", 1963
*"Golden Boy", 1964
*"The Apple Tree", 1967 (Tony Award, best costume design, nominee)
*"Pippin", 1972 (Tony and Drama Desk Awards)
*"Shelter", 1973 (Drama Desk Award)
*"Chicago", 1975
*"Sophisticated Ladies", 1981
*"The Real Thing", 1984
*"Hurlyburly", 1984
*"I'm Not Rappaport", 1985
*"House of Blue Leaves", 1986 (Tony and Drama Desk Awards)
*"The Front Page", 1986
*"Social Security", 1986 (Drama Desk Award)
*"Anything Goes", 1987
*"Grand Hotel", 1989;
*"Six Degrees of Separation", 1990
*"The Will Rogers Follies", 1991
*"Death and the Maiden", 1992
*"Conversations with My Father", 1992
*"Four Baboons Adoring the Sun", 1992
*"Guys and Dolls", 1992 (Tony and Drama Desk Awards)
*"Tommy Tune Tonight", 1992
*"She Loves Me", 1993 (Tony Award, nominee)
*"A Grand Night for Singing", 1993
*"Laughter on the 23rd Floor", 1993
*"Picnic", 1994
*"A Christmas Carol", NYC, 1994
*"Company", 1995
*"Moonlight", 1995
*"A Fair Country", 1996
*"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", 1996
*"The Shawl", 1996
*"Steel Pier", 1997 (Tony and Drama Desk Awards, nominee)
*"King David", 1997
*"1776", 1997
*"The Cripple of Inishmaan", 1998
*"Annie Get Your Gun", 1999
*"On Raftery's Hill", 2000
*"Uncle Vanya", 2000 (Tony and Drama Desk Awards, nominee)
*"The Man Who Came to Dinner", 2000
*"Taller Than a Dwarf", 2000
*"Our Town", 2002
*"Nobody Don't Like Yogi", 2003
*"The Boy Friend", 2003 (Bay Street Theatre)
*"The Boy Friend", 2005 (National Tour)
*"Well", 2006
*"The Sleeping Beauty", 2007 (ABT, Metropolitan Opera)
*"A Tale of Two Cities", 2007

More recently, Walton has diversified into directing, with productions of:
*Orson Welles' "Moby Dick Rehearsed", 2005
*Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest", 1996
*"Noel Coward In Two Keys", 1996
*George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara", 1997
* "Missing Footage", 1999
*"Ooops! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show", 1999
*"Where's Charley?", 2004
*"After the Ball", 2004
*"Busker Alley", 2006

Inspiration for Disney's "Winnie the Pooh"

Walton gave the Sherman Brothers the insight and inspiration for the "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" songs as is explained in the Sherman Brothers' joint autobiography, "Walt's Time":

:::cquote|Walt (Disney) said 'Read the Pooh stories and let me know what you think.' We tried, but the stories just weren't coming through to us. At that time designer Tony Walton was working on "Poppins". He was English-born, and he was about our age, so we asked him to give us some insight on the Pooh character. His eyes lit up. 'Winnie the Pooh?', he said. 'I love Winnie the Pooh! Of course I'll help you!' Three hours later, he was still talking about Pooh, inspiring us no end. He explained how he had been a chubby little boy, and had felt very insecure. But Winnie the Pooh was his buddy, because Pooh was pudgy and proud of it. Pooh was probably the only character in the world who exercised to gain weight! Pooh was a wonderful, lovable friend who would never let you down or turn his back on you. Soon, we started to fall in love with Pooh ourselves. Our songs for "Winnie the Pooh" were truly a love affair, thanks to A.A. Milne and to Tony Walton. [Sherman, Robert B., "", 1998, p 68.]

Personal life

Walton married Julie Andrews in 1959, and the two had a daughter (Emma Walton). They divorced in 1967 and Walton married Gen LeRoy in 1975.

References

External links

*imdb name|0910589
*ibdb name|id=25417
* [http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800062018&cf=gen Yahoo! Movies profile of Tony Walton]
* [http://www.talemusical.com A Tale of Two Cities]
* [http://www.talemusical.com/biographies.php?action=1&type=creative&id=21 Profile for A Tale of Two Cities]