Biography
Margaret Furse (born Alice Margaret Watts) was a British costume designer who worked extensively in film from the 1940s onwards. She trained at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and joined the Motley Theatre Design Group before entering films, initially assisting on Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944).
She is known for her work on period films including Great Expectations (1946), Oliver Twist (1948), The Crimson Pirate (1952), The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), A Shot in the Dark (1964), Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Scrooge (1970) and Mary, Queen of Scots (1971). Furse received an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Anne of the Thousand Days and was nominated for several others, including The Lion in Winter. She was posthumously awarded an Emmy for Love Among the Ruins (1975).
Furse was married to art director Roger K. Furse from 1936 until their divorce in 1953, and later to author and critic Stephen Watts.
