Yvonne Blake was a British-born Spanish costume designer.
She won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra along with Antonio Castillo.
In 1976, Blake designed the original Superman costume for Christopher Reeve in Richard Donner’s Superman, providing notes which were to establish his look for many movie iterations.
Blake’s other work included the costumes for Norman Jewison’s Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers (1973), and Robin & Marian (1976), and Milos Forman’s Goya’s Ghosts (2006). Her final film was There Be Dragons (2011); she also designed the costume Jack Taylor wore as a sadistic serial killer in the 2014 horror movie, Wax.
Blake also won Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent of the Oscar, for Rowing With the Wind (1988), Canción de Cuna (1994), Carmen (2003), and The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004).
Blake died July 17, 2018, in Madrid, Spain. She was 78.