Education
Landis graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with a Master of Fine Arts in costume design in 1975. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in history of design from the Royal College of Art in London.
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Deborah Landis
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Career
She worked on such notable films as Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Three Amigos, all of which credited her as Deborah Nadoolman. Landis served two terms as president of the Costume Designers Guild of which she has been a member for more than thirty years. She has created iconic costumes throughout her career, such as the fedora and jacket of Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), the "college" sweatshirt worn by John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi), and Michael Jackson"s red jacket in Thriller.
After receiving her doctorate, Landis wrote and edited a number of books including: "Hollywood Sketchbook: A Century of Costume Illustration" (Harper Collins, 2012), "FilmCraft: Costume Design" (Focal Press, 2012), "Hollywood Costume" (V&A Publishing, 2012), Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design (Harper Collins, 2007), Screencraft/Costume Design (Focal Press, 2003) and 50 Costumes/50 Designers: Concept to Character (University of California Press 2004).
Landis spent five years researching and designing "Hollywood Costume," which opened on October 20th, 2012 at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. With one hundred and thirty iconic costumes loaned by sixty international archives and private collectors, "Hollywood Costume" was universally well reviewed and broke records at the V&A. Over 265,000 visitors saw the show before it closed on January 27th, 2013.
Landis headed the curation team as Senior Curator, with Sir Christopher Frayling, Guest Curator and Keith Lodwick as V&A Curator. The exhibition was designed by the London firm of Casson-Mann and the score for the exhibition was composed by Julian Scott.
The 2013-2014 exhibition tour includes the Australian Center for the Moving Image in Melbourne, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, and the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona.
Landis has lectured widely on costume design and taught classes at the University of Southern California, the American Film Institute Conservatory, and is a professor at the University of the Arts London. She was inducted as a Distinguished Alumna at the University of California, Los Angeles Department of Theater, Film and Television in 2005, and honored as a William Randolph Hearst Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin in 2006. In 2007, she served on the Cinefondation Jury at the 60th Cannes Film Festival.
In 2009, Landis became the David C. Copley Chair and the Director of the David C. Copley Center of Costume Design at University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film & Television.
She is mentioned in "The 21-Second Excitation" episode of The Big Bang Theory for her work on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Michael Jackson"s Thriller.
