Biography
Ralph Jester (10 July 1901 – 25 September 1991) was an American costume designer, sculptor and artist. Born in Tyler, Texas, he graduated from Yale University, where he edited the campus humour magazine The Yale Record, and studied at the American Academy in Fontainebleau, France, before moving to Hollywood.
By 1931 he was working as an art director and costume designer for Cecil B. DeMille and Paramount Pictures, collaborating closely with Edith Head. His early film work included sculpting for Cleopatra (1934). He is best known for his costume design on The Ten Commandments (1956), for which he received an Academy Award nomination shared with Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, John Jensen and Arnold Friberg. He also designed costumes for Omar Khayyam (1957), The Buccaneer (1958) and Solomon and Sheba (1959), earning a second Oscar nomination for the former.
