American artist who specialized in designs for stage and film, he was the first American artist to have a one-man show at the Louvre Museum, Paris. An international design icon, his celebrity clients included the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Doris Duke, J. Paul Getty, and Elizabeth Arden. His designs for the original Broadway production of Camelot won Duquette the Tony Award for Best Costume Design.
In the early 1940s, Duquette was discovered by designer and socialite Elsie de Wolfe. Through the patronage of de Wolfe and her husband Sir Charles Mendl, Duquette established himself as one of the leading designers in Los Angeles. He worked increasingly for films, including many Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions under the auspices of producer Arthur Freed and director Vincente Minnelli.
Duquette designed costumes and settings for the movies, interiors for Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers, jewelry and special furnishings for Lady Mendl, as well as numerous night clubs and public places.
He served in the United States Army for four years during the Second World War and received an honorable discharge. After the liberation of Paris, he accompanied Sir Charles and Lady Mendl on their return trip to Europe and was introduced to their friends on the continent.
Upon his return from Europe in 1947, Duquette continued his works for private clients and for the theatre and motion pictures. He presented his first exhibition at the Mitch Liesen Gallery in Los Angeles in 1949 and shortly thereafter was asked to present his works at the Pavilion de Marsan of the Louvre Museum, Paris.
In 1956, with his wife Elizabeth (known as Beegle), he opened a salon in the converted silent film studios of actress Norma Talmadge, where they entertained friends such as Arthur Rubenstein, Aldous Huxley and Jascha Heifetz.
During the 1960s and ’70s, the Duquettes continued to travel extensively, working in Austria, Ireland and France as well as New York, Dallas, San Francisco, South America and Asia.
In 1979, the Duquettes formed the Anthony and Elizabeth Duquette Foundation for the Living Arts, a non-profit public foundation whose purpose is to present museum-quality exhibitions of artistic, scientific, and educational value to the public and to purchase, promote and preserve Duquette’s own works.
In 1949, Duquette married artist Elizabeth “Beegle” Johnstone at a private ceremony at Pickfair, with Mary Pickford as matron of honor and Buddy Rogers as best man. After 46 years of marriage and artistic collaboration with Duquette, Elizabeth died from Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles. On 9 September 1999, Duquette died of a heart attack at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 85.
Duquette’s house in Beverly Hills, “Dawnridge”, continues as the headquarters for the design business, headed by Duquette’s longtime collaborator Hutton Wilkinson.
Link to Wikipedia biography