Renie; Costume Designer Shared Academy Award for ‘Cleopatra’

Renie, a film costume designer who won an Academy Award and was nominated for three others, died Tuesday in her Pacific Palisades home. She was 90 and was one of the founders of the Costume Designers Guild.

Born Irene Brouillet, she came to stage and movie work after studying at the Chouinard Art Institute and UCLA.

Over the years she created costumes for the Ice Follies, Walt Disney and Paramount, RKO and Twentieth Century Fox film studios, among others.

She was nominated for her first Oscar in 1951 for “The Model and the Marriage Broker.” She also was nominated in 1953 for “The President’s Lady” and in 1959 for “The Big Fisherman.” In 1963, she shared the Academy Award with Irene Sharaff and Vittorio Nino Novarese for best costume design for “Cleopatra,” the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton spectacular.

One of her most significant contributions did not bring her a nomination, however.

Her designs for Ginger Rogers in 1940’s “Kitty Foyle” were credited with giving women across the country new insights into fashion.

One of her last design efforts was for Kathleen Turner in 1981’s “Body Heat.”

Survivors include her husband, Leland Hawes Conley, a son, Truman Van Dyke Jr., two grandsons and two great-grandchildren.

The family asks that donations be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund in Woodland Hills.