{{Short description|American interior designer (1903–1983)}} {{Infobox person | name = Billy Baldwin | birth_name = William Baldwin Jr. | birth_date = {{birth date|1903|05|30}} | birth_place = Roland Park, Maryland, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1983|11|25|1903|05|30}} | death_place = Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S. | occupation = Interior designer }} '''William Baldwin Jr.''' (May 30, 1903 – November 25, 1983), known as '''Billy Baldwin''' and nicknamed '''Billy B''', was an American interior designer, characterized in an obituary as the "dean of interior decorators".<ref name="nyt">{{cite web |last=Krebs |first=Albin |title=Billy Baldwin is dead at 80; Dean of interior decorators |website=The New York Times |date=November 26, 1983 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/26/obituaries/billy-baldwin-is-dead-at-80-dean-of-interior-decorators.html |access-date=April 16, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Scavullo 1977">{{cite book |last=Scavullo |first=Francesco |title=Scavullo on Men |publisher=Random House | publication-place=New York |year=1977 | isbn=0-394-41934-0 | pages=18–21}}</ref> He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1974.<ref>{{ cite book | title=Ultimate Style – The Best of the Best Dressed List| pages= 116| isbn= 2-84323-513-8 | year=2004 | last1= Zilkha| first1= Bettina| publisher= Assouline}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The International Hall of Fame: Men |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/the-international-best-dressed-list/hall-of-fame-men |newspaper=Vanity Fair |date=28 January 2015 }}</ref>
==Personal life== Baldwin was born on May 30, 1903, in Roland Park, Maryland and studied architecture at Princeton, dropping out after two years.<ref name="nyt"/> He attended Truman Capote's Black and White Ball at the Plaza in 1966. Baldwin died of a heart ailment on November 25, 1983, at Nantucket Cottage Hospital on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.<ref name="nyt"/> He was openly gay.<ref name="Scavullo 1977"/>
==Career== Starting in 1935, Baldwin was employed by Ruby Ross Wood, and when she died in 1950, he took over the firm. In 1952, he formed his own firm, Baldwin and Martin, with Edward Martin. They decorated the White House of John F. Kennedy, and designed the houses and apartments of many well-known people, such as Cole Porter, Mary Wells Lawrence, Billy Rose, Rachel Lambert Mellon and Paul Mellon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Mike Nichols, Harvey Ladew, Babe Paley and William S. Paley, Pauline de Rothschild, Greta Garbo, Barbara Hutton, and Diana Vreeland.<ref>Frederick N. Rasmussen, "Billy Baldwin's life and work remembered at museum", ''The Baltimore Sun'', May 29, 2010 [https://web.archive.org/web/20110104070718/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-05-29/news/bs-md-backstory-billy-baldwin-20100529_1_interior-designer-evergreen-museum-library-james-archer-abbott full text]</ref> Baldwin's commercial clients included the Round Hill Club in Greenwich, CT, the Kenneth hair salon in New York City, and La Florentina in the South of France. In 1972, Baldwin designed a line of furniture (including his famous Slipper Chair), which continues to be manufactured by the Billy Baldwin Studio.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.billybaldwinstudio.com|title = Billy Baldwin Studio|website = www.billybaldwinstudio.com|access-date = 2016-06-21}}</ref> He retired in 1973.<ref name="princeton">''Princeton Alumni Weekly'', September 22, 1982, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2BZbAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA23 p. 23]</ref>
Baldwin wrote several books over his career, including ''Billy Baldwin Decorates'' (1972), ''Billy Baldwin Remembers'' (1974), and ''Billy Baldwin: An Autobiography'' (1985, posthumously). He was also featured in books by others, such as ''Legendary Decorators'' (1992), written by Mark Hampton, ''The New York Times Book of Interior Design and Decoration'', and ''Scavullo on Men'' (1977) written by Scavullo. Adam Lewis published the biography ''Billy Baldwin: The Great American Decorator'' in 2010.
==Notes== <references/>
==Bibliography== * Billy Baldwin, ''Billy Baldwin Decorates'', 1973. * Adam Lewis, ''Billy Baldwin: The Great American Decorator'', Rizzoli 2010, {{ISBN|0847833674}}. * M.L. Aronson, "Billy Baldwin: A fresh approach to color and form reshapes the American aesthetic", ''Architectural Digest'', January 2000 [http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/archive/baldwin_article_012000 full text]
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Billy}} Category:American interior designers Category:1903 births Category:1983 deaths Category:LGBTQ people from Maryland Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people