Bob Mackie died on Monday at 87. The costume designer known as the Sultan of Sequins spent six decades dressing Cher, Carol Burnett, Diana Ross, Tina Turner and Elton John, and along the way he left fingerprints on several Disney-owned properties.
He died at a hospital in Palm Springs, California. The news was announced on his Instagram account, which said he had lived his 87 years to the fullest and fulfilled his dream of being a fashion and costume designer, which was all he ever wanted to do. No cause was given in the announcement.
He Dressed The Star Wars Holiday Special
Mackie designed the costumes for the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, the CBS broadcast that aired once and became legend for all the wrong reasons. Harvey Korman’s four-armed cooking show host Gormaanda, Art Carney’s trader Saun Dann, Diahann Carroll’s Mermeia and Bea Arthur’s cantina bartender Ackmena were all his, as were the holographic circus performers who entertain Lumpy.
The special now belongs to Disney through Lucasfilm, which has kept it out of circulation.
Elton John’s Donald Duck
On September 13, 1980, Elton John played Central Park for more than 400,000 people, and the thing everyone remembers is the duck. Mackie built him a full Donald Duck costume, webbed feet and padded rear included, and John changed into it after the first encore. He later said it was very difficult to play the piano in and that he had never walked in flippers before, and that he could not stop laughing because it looked ridiculous and fabulous at the same time.
Mackie never worked on The Muppet Show directly, but his clothes kept turning up on it. Elton John wore a Mackie feathered headdress and beaded suit to perform “Crocodile Rock” with the Muppets, and Raquel Welch wore a sequined illusion bodysuit for “Baby It’s Me.”
He reunited with Carol Burnett for the 2005 television adaptation of Once Upon a Mattress, which aired on ABC as part of The Wonderful World of Disney. It brought him his final Emmy nomination.
Eleven Seasons And Seventeen Thousand Costumes
His longest collaboration was The Carol Burnett Show. Mackie designed all eleven seasons, turning out sixty to seventy costumes a week, and Burnett has estimated the total ran to roughly 17,000 outfits across the run.
The most famous of them is the curtain rod dress from the “Went with the Wind!” sketch, in which Burnett descends a staircase wearing drapes with the rod still in the shoulders. It is now in the Smithsonian. Burnett has said she often found her characters through his designs rather than the other way around.
Nine Emmys, Three Oscar Nominations And A Tony
Mackie won nine Emmys from 32 nominations, took three Oscar nominations for Lady Sings the Blues, Funny Lady and Pennies From Heaven, and won a Tony in 2019 for The Cher Show. His 1982 Barbie collection remains a collector’s item.
Miley Cyrus wore a Mackie to the 2024 Grammys, Sabrina Carpenter wore one to the 2025 MTV VMAs, and Taylor Swift has worn one of his showgirl costumes. He appeared as himself on an episode of Hacks in May, on a season whose plot turned on finding the perfect Mackie.
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