Franne Lee was a costume designer in the early days of “Saturday Night Live” who created the costumes for classic sketches like the Coneheads and the Blues Brothers.
- Died: August 27, 2023 (Who else died on August 27?)
- Details of death: Died in Atlantis, Florida, after a short illness at the age of 81.
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Franne Lee’s legacy
Lee got her start doing costume design for local theaters and worked her way up to Broadway. She was working on a Broadway revival of “Candide,” for which she won a Tony Award, when she caught the eye of Lorne Michaels as he was developing “Saturday Night Live.” She joined the fledgling show as costume designer, remaining there until 1980.
While at “Saturday Night Live,” Lee designed unforgettable costumes, including the large prosthetic heads worn by Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, and Laraine Newman in the Coneheads sketches. She created the costumes for the Killer Bees sketch, enlisting her father to help with their springy antennae. And she put Aykroyd and John Belushi (1949–1982) in the iconic black suits and dark sunglasses that they would wear on the show and on the big screen as the Blues Brothers. Other characters whose looks were created by Lee included Gilda Radner’s (1946–1989) Roseanne Roseannadanna and Emily Litella, Belushi’s samurai, and Aykroyd and Steve Martin’s Wild and Crazy Guys.
While working on “Saturday Night Live,” Lee also costumed the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s (1930–2021) “Sweeney Todd,” winning another Tony Award. She continued working in costume design throughout her life, both on Broadway and around the country.
Lee on SNL
“Lorne said everything had to be cheap. It’s not easy to do a live show and make it work. This was more like theater. Only every week it was a different play!” –from a 2021 interview with Joe Capozzi
Tributes to Franne Lee
Full obituary: NPR
