Background
Theiss was born in Medford, Massachusetts, the son of Harold Hetherington Theiss and Helen Theiss, and was named for his paternal grandfather, William Hodgson, and his paternal grandmother"s family, Ellen (Ware) Hodgson.
Theiss was born in Medford, Massachusetts, the son of Harold Hetherington Theiss and Helen Theiss, and was named for his paternal grandfather, William Hodgson, and his paternal grandmother"s family, Ellen (Ware) Hodgson.
He attended Lowell High School in San Francisco. He attended Art Center College of Design at Stanford University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, minoring in sciences, biology and chemistry before a four-year stint in the United States Navy.
His film credits as costume designer include Spartacus, Harold and Maude, Bound for Glory, Pete"s Dragon (uncredited), Who"ll Stop the Rain, Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, The Manitoba with One Red Shoe, and Heart Like a Wheel. He eventually moved to Los Los Angeles His first Hollywood job was as a personal secretary to Cary Grant, whose ex-wife, actress Dyan Cannon, Theiss cited as having considerable influence on his career.
Theiss died of complications from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome on December 15, 1992, age 62.
Following six months at Revue/Universal Studios as an apprentice artist in the Advertising Art Department, Theiss worked at Columbia Broadcasting System in the Wardrobe Department on two televised soap operas. The film The Pink Panther (1963) was his first as a designer, although he is credited as "wardrobe consultant".
He returned to television as a wardrobe man for shows including Hollywood Palace, My Favorite Martian, and The Farmer"s Daughter. In autumn 1964 he was costume designer for “The World of Ray Bradbury" on stage.
Roddenberry then hired Theiss as costume designer for Star Trek.
The "Theiss Titillation Theory"—which claims that "the degree to which a costume is considered sexy is directly proportional to how accident-prone it appears to be"—is named after him. A key example of this idea in practice is the female android costume in the Star Trek episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" in which the revealing top portion consists only of two crossing straps of material that connect in one piece to trousers, and—Theiss"s personal favorite—the gown featured in the episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?": a backless dress in which the front of the dress was held up by the weight of the train which fell over the shoulder to the floor.