Bob Mackie: The Man Who Made Rock Stars Sparkle Dies at 87
Bob Mackie could make a costume compete with a hit song and enhance the glamour of even the most glamorous. The man had Cher, Tina Turner and Elton John to work with, and somehow he found ways to turn them up.
Mackie died Monday (9/14) at 87, his team announced on his official social media accounts. The award-winning designer gave us Cher’s feathers, Tina’s fiery finery and Elton’s glittering Dodgers uniform. Try picturing those three onstage without picturing something he made.
Although his clothes came into American homes every week through Carol Burnett, Cher was probably his most famous collaborator. Fans of Diana Ross and Madonna are welcome to argue. They have some pretty good evidence.
“Sadness doesn’t come close to how I feel. I loved him very much,” Burnett wrote on Instagram Monday. “There was no one like him.”
“I feel so lucky to have met Bob,” Sabrina Carpenter posted on her Instagram Stories Monday, adding that she is a “Mackie girl forever.”
Carpenter had already made that clear at the 2024 VMAs, where she wore Madonna’s 1991 Oscars gown. Thirty-three years later, the dress was still ready for its close-up. Earlier that year, Miley Cyrus performed “Flowers” at the Grammys in vintage Mackie on the night she won her first Grammy. The next generation had figured out where the good stuff was.
For the entire 11-year run of The Carol Burnett Show (1967–1978), Mackie dressed the people making America laugh. His masterpiece might have been the curtain dress in Burnett’s Gone with the Wind parody. He left the rod in it. An absurdly simple idea, and there it was, stretched across her shoulders, getting a laugh before she could say a word.
Then there was Elton at Dodger Stadium. A baseball uniform covered in sequins sounds ridiculous until Elton John puts it on. Now try imagining those shows without it.
Mackie’s client list could keep an awards-show announcer busy through the commercial break: Ann-Margret, Lucille Ball, Diahann Carroll, Carol Channing, Doris Day, Barbara Eden, Lola Falana, Farrah Fawcett, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, Pink, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Sylvie Vartan, Dottie West, Oprah Winfrey, RuPaul and Beyoncé.
Country singers, disco queens, comedians, Broadway stars. Everybody had somewhere to go, and Bob could help them make an entrance.
He came from the San Gabriel Valley. Born in Monterey Park on March 24, 1939, Mackie spent part of his childhood with his maternal grandparents in Alhambra after his parents separated. Later, he lived with his father in Rosemead and attended Rosemead High School.
He studied at Pasadena City College and Chouinard Art Institute, where Eva Roberts headed the fashion department. Then costume designer Frank Thompson offered him a job sketching at Paramount. Mackie left school. There was work to do.
His education continued around people like Edith Head and Jean Louis. While working for Louis, he drew the sketch for the gown Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
The drawing was Mackie’s. The dress was a Jean Louis design. That distinction gets blurry in some accounts, but Mackie had plenty of his own work to take credit for.
His bigger opportunity arrived in 1966, when Mitzi Gaynor hired him to design costumes for her Las Vegas act. Television specials followed. Here was someone who needed to dance, get laughs and look spectacular doing it. You can see why they got along.
The awards followed, too. Mackie won nine Emmys from 32 nominations, then picked up a Tony in 2019 for the costumes in Broadway’s The Cher Show. After all those years dressing Cher, he won another award dressing people playing Cher.
His Emmy-winning work included Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966), G.I.T. on Broadway (1969), two Mitzi Gaynor specials, Mama’s Family (1983–1990), Carol & Company (1990–1991) and Cher: The Farewell Tour (2003).
The Academy nominated him for Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Funny Lady (1975) and Pennies from Heaven (1981). He never won an Oscar. Three chances to give Bob Mackie an Academy Award, and they let him leave empty-handed every time.
He was also the very first guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race (2009–present). In 2023, RuPaul presented him with the show’s first Giving Us Life-time Achievement Award. Even the award’s name dressed up for the occasion.
View this post from RuPaul’s Drag Race on X
His private life held long relationships and some terrible losses. In 1960, he married singer and actress LuLu Porter. They divorced three years later but remained close. Their son Robin became a makeup artist. He died of an AIDS-related illness in 1993 at 33.
Fellow costume designer Ray Aghayan was Mackie’s partner for nearly half a century, until Aghayan died in 2011.
Later, Mackie and Porter learned that Robin had a daughter they hadn’t known about. They had a granddaughter. Through her, their family also included two great-granddaughters.