William Ware Theiss

William Ware Theiss
Born(1931-11-20)November 20, 1931
Medford, Massachusetts
DiedDecember 15, 1992(1992-12-15) (aged 61)
Los Angeles, California
OccupationCostume designer
Years active1960–1988

William Ware Theiss (/θaɪs/; November 20, 1931 – December 15, 1992)[1] was an American costume designer for television and film.

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 Man with One Red Shoe, and Heart Like a Wheel. His television credits include Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, for which he won an Emmy Award for Best Costume Design.[2][3]

In the course of his career, Theiss was most famous for creating alluring female costuming that censors typically could not credibly forbid, employing what came to be called the "Theiss Titillation Theory": "The sexiness of an outfit is directly proportional to the perceived possibility that a vital piece of it might fall off."[4]

  1. ^ US Social Security Death Index for W Thiess
  2. ^ "Emmy Winners Who Got Awards Saturday". Los Angeles Times. August 29, 1988.
  3. ^ COSTUME DESIGN FOR A SERIES "Outstanding Costume Design for a Series 1989". "Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for 1989". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  4. ^ Reeves-Stevens, Judith (Nov 1, 1995). The Art of Star Trek. Simon & Schuster. pp. 28–31. ISBN 9781439108550. Retrieved 20 November 2017.