Costume Designer Richard Bruno Has Died | Clothes on Film

The man who dressed Raging Bull, Goodfellas and the Color of Money, costume designer Richard Bruno, has died aged 87.

Bruno’s career spanned thirty years and he worked on fifty feature films. His early work as a wardrobe supervisor provided a prestige backdrop to his later collaborations with director Martin Scorsese, which would eventually lead to a BAFTA win for Goodfellas (1990); movies such as Westworld (1973), Chinatown (1975) and as a wardrobe consultant for Robert De Niro on The Untouchables (1987). Richard Bruno also provided De Niro’s memorable look, the red clip-on bow tie and geometric print jacket as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy (1983).

Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy.

Mary Rose, president of the Costume Designers Guild confirms Bruno’s skill, especially with masculine dress:

Richard Bruno was a remarkably gifted designer especially in designing costumes for male characters. Always a professional, he was well respected by the industry and will be greatly missed by all of us.

Goodfellas is obviously Richard Bruno’s most famous work, and rightly so. Told over several decades incorporating changing fashions (note the parallel collar points on shirts). From Henry Hill’s first double breasted suit (his mother: “You look like a gangster!”) to becoming a ‘schnook’ in a blue towelling dressing gown. Bruno told a story through clothes that charted the protagonist’s life from bottom to top and then into obscurity. It was exceptional work.