LOS ANGELES, United States – Bob Mackie, the celebrated American costume and fashion designer whose glittering creations helped define the public image of Cher and generations of entertainment stars, has died at 87.
Mackie’s death was announced Monday through his official social media accounts. A representative later confirmed that he died of pneumonia in Palm Springs, California.
For more than five decades, Mackie brought elaborate costumes, theatrical silhouettes and elaborate embellishment to television, film, theater and live performance. His clients included Cher, Carol Burnett, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Elton John, Dolly Parton, Liza Minnelli and other major performers.
His partnership with Cher became particularly enduring. Mackie designed many of her most recognizable stage and television looks, including the dramatic black ensemble and feathered headdress she wore while presenting at the 1986 Academy Awards and the revealing costume associated with her 1989 “If I Could Turn Back Time” video.
A career built around performance
Mackie established himself in television during the 1960s and became closely associated with The Carol Burnett Show, designing costumes throughout the program’s 11-year run. The Television Academy credits him with 32 Emmy nominations and nine wins and notes that he was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2002.
His work extended well beyond television. Mackie and collaborators received an Academy Award nomination for costume design for Lady Sings the Blues, the 1972 film starring Diana Ross as Billie Holiday. He was also nominated for Funny Lady.
In 2019, he won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical for The Cher Show, a Broadway production based on Cher’s life and career.
Mackie’s designs were often inseparable from the performers who wore them. He treated costumes as part of a stage persona rather than simply as clothing, using feathers, sequins, rhinestones, metallic fabrics and exaggerated shapes to amplify the spectacle of live entertainment.
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Some of his most famous work was deliberately provocative. Cher’s outfits frequently challenged conventional ideas about how a major female performer was expected to appear on television and at awards ceremonies.
From Marilyn Monroe to Cher
Mackie’s career also included an early connection to one of Hollywood’s most famous images.
While working as an assistant to designer Jean Louis, he helped sketch the dress Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
That early experience was followed by decades of original work for entertainers across television, film and music.
Mackie also designed the costumes for The Cher Show, extending a professional relationship with Cher that had begun decades earlier. The Television Academy records Mackie’s Emmy-winning work on several Cher productions, including Cher: Live in Concert – From the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2000 and her farewell tour in 2003.
His influence eventually reached beyond the stars for whom he designed directly. Mackie created fashion collections, worked with Barbie and developed other commercial projects while maintaining his connection to entertainment design.
In later years, his work continued to be referenced and worn by younger performers, underscoring the durability of a visual language that had emerged from television variety shows and concert stages decades earlier.
Mackie’s death closes a career that connected Hollywood’s classic television era with contemporary popular culture.
His costumes remain part of the visual history of performers who used fashion not simply to complement a performance, but to make the performer themselves part of the spectacle.
Reporting Credit: Bob Mackie’s official representatives and social media account — announcement of his death; Television Academy — career, Emmy record and Hall of Fame information; American Theatre Wing/Tony Awards — 2019 Tony Award for The Cher Show; Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — Oscar nominations and film costume credits.
