Tony Walton

Anthony John Walton (24 October 1934 – 2 March 2022) was a British costume designer and set designer. He won three Tony Awards, an Academy Award, and an Emmy Award. He received three Tony Awards for Pippin, House of Blue Leaves (1986), and Guys and Dolls (1992). For his work in movies, he won an Academy Award for Best Production Design, for All That Jazz (1979), and nominations for Mary Poppins (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and The Wiz (1978). For his work in television, he won a Primetime Emmy Award, for Death of a Salesman (1985).

Early life Walton was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, on 24 October 1934. His father, Lancelot, was an orthopedic surgeon and his mother, Hilda, was a homemaker. He fell in love with the theatre as child when on a family trip to a pantomime. as a trainee pilot in Ontario, Canada.

In December 2005, for their annual birthday celebration to 'The Master', The Noël Coward Society invited Walton as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the 106th birthday of Sir Noël.

Inspiration for Disney's Winnie the Pooh

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

Personal life and death Walton married his childhood sweetheart Julie Andrews in 1959, and together they had a daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton. Walton said that he fell in love with Andrews when they were children and he saw her playing the egg in a theatre production of Humpty Dumpty. They divorced in 1968 but remained close friends. Walton, Andrews, and their daughter worked together professionally several times, with Walton illustrating several children's books written by Andrews and their daughter.

Walton married Gen LeRoy in 1991. He died from complications of a stroke at his apartment in New York City on 2 March 2022, at the age of 87.

Credits Film Year Title Set Designer Costume Designer Note 1964 Mary Poppins 1966 Fahrenheit 451 1966 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum 1968 Petulia 1968 The Sea Gull 1971 The Boy Friend 1974 Murder on the Orient Express 1977 Equus 1978 The Wiz 1980 Just Tell Me What You Want 1981 Prince of the City 1982 Deathtrap 1984 The Goodbye People 1986 Heartburn 1987 The Glass Menagerie 1991 Regarding Henry

Television

Theatre

Walton later diversified into directing, with productions of: Orson Welles' Moby Dick—Rehearsed, 2005 Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, 1996 Noël 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

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Emmy Awards

Tony Awards