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Endpoint: Cecil Beaton (Photographer & Designer)



created on: 10/02/2026
by: bob (10516)
 
 

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General info :
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton CBE (14 January 1904 in Hampstead, London – 18 January 1980, Reddish House, Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, England (aged 76)) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as costume designer and set designer for stage and screen.

His accolades include three Academy Awards and four Tony Awards.

Beaton designed book jackets, and costumes for charity matinees, learning the craft of photography at the studio of Paul Tanqueray, until Vogue took him on regularly in 1927.
He set up his own studio, and one of his earliest clients and, later, best friends was Stephen Tennant. Beaton's photographs of Tennant and his circle are considered some of the best representations of the Bright Young People of the twenties and thirties.

He was a photographer for the British edition of Vogue in 1931 when George Hoyningen-Huene, photographer for French Vogue, travelled to England with his new friend Horst. Horst himself would begin to work for French Vogue in November of that year.

Beaton is known for his fashion photographs and society portraits. He worked as a staff photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue in addition to photographing celebrities in Hollywood. In 1938, he inserted some tiny-but-still-legible anti-Semitic phrases (including the word 'kike') into American Vogue at the side of an illustration about New York society. The issue was recalled and reprinted, and Beaton was fired.

Beaton returned to England, where the Queen recommended him to the Ministry of Information (MoI). He became a leading war photographer, best known for his images of the damage done by the German Blitz. With his style sharpened and his range broadened, Beaton's career was restored by the war.
Beaton often photographed the Royal Family for official publication.

Beaton had a major influence on and relationship with Angus McBean and David Bailey. McBean was a well-known portrait photographer of his era. Later in his career, his work was influenced by Beaton. Bailey was influenced by Beaton when they met while working for British Vogue in the early 1960s.

After the war, Beaton tackled the Broadway stage, designing sets, costumes, and lighting for a 1946 revival of Lady Windermere's Fan, in which he also acted.

His costumes for Lerner and Loewe's musical play My Fair Lady (1956) were highly praised. This led to him being the designer for two Lerner and Loewe film musicals, Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964), each of which earned Beaton the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. He also designed the period costumes for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

His additional Broadway credits include The Grass Harp (1952), The Chalk Garden (1955), Saratoga (1959), Tenderloin (1960), and Coco (1969). He was the recipient of four Tony Awards.

He designed the sets and costumes for a production of Giacomo Puccini's last opera Turandot, first used at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and then at Covent Garden.

Cecil Beaton was a published and well-known diarist. In his lifetime, six volumes of diaries were published, spanning the years 1922–1974.

Beaton had relationships with various men and women, including former Olympic fencer and teacher Kinmont Hoitsma (his last lover), actresses Greta Garbo and Coral Browne, dancer Adele Astaire, Greek socialite Madame Jean Ralli (Julie Marie 'Lilia' Pringo), and British socialite Doris Castlerosse.

He was knighted in the 1972 New Year Honours. Two years later, he suffered a stroke that left him permanently paralysed on the right side of his body.
By the end of the 1970s, Beaton's health had faded. He died on 18 January 1980 at Reddish House, four days after his 76th birthday.
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Item number : 71978

Submitted by : bob (10516)
on : 10/02/2026
Refined by : bob (10516)
Last updated on: 10/02/2026