Mike O'Neill (21 September 1945 – 10 April 2018) was a British-Irish award winning costume designer for film and television.

Early life and career O'Neill was born in Manchester, the oldest of seven children. His mother had been a Tiller Girl, and has been described as an early show business influence. As a teenager he worked behind the scenes in Manchester theatres.

O'Neill studied theatre design at Nottingham University, and after graduation in the late 1960s, joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. For twelve years, he assisted the Head of Design, focusing on costume design and production. They produced six shows a year in Stratford, and O'Neill contributed colourwork, sampling, cutting and refining costumes. He worked on productions including Peter Brook’s The Dream, Buzz Goodbody’s Hamlet and Trevor Nunn’s Revenger’s Tragedy.

Film and television O'Neill's first film work was for Roman Polanski's Macbeth in 1971.

To establish himself in costume for film and television, O'Neill did "all sort of things... some of which were hysterically bad," but soon broke through with G.B.H. (1991, written by Alan Bleasdale), a contemporary drama shot in O'Neill's hometown of Manchester. This was followed by the ITV drama Prime Suspect, starring Helen Mirren.

O'Neill assembled a "thoughtful and highly skilled team" – in the words of screenwriter Sandy Welch – who helped to bring detailed attention to small supporting parts as well as the main characters. This was most evident in Dickensian and social realist productions, for example Our Mutual Friend (1998), which won a Royal Television Award for Best Costume, and North and South (2004).

In the early 1990s, O'Neill met Samantha Horn, who became his costume design partner; the couple married in 1999. Together they were nominated for multiple BAFTA and Royal Television Society awards, and found success throughout the 2000s with lavishly costumed, high-end period dramas and literary adaptations, including Daniel Deronda (2002), starring Romola Garai as Gwendolen. Garai credited O'Neill with helping her find the character, and praised his "artistry, ambition, use of colour and attention to detail”.

In 2003, O'Neill and Horn won the BAFTA for Best Costume design for Charles: The Pride and the Passion, starring Rufus Sewell as King Charles II. Although he used lustrous fabrics and jewel-like colours, O'Neill's purpose was to create believable, realistic characters, and costumes were at the service of that aim.

In 2005, O'Neill reunited with Prime Suspect star Helen Mirren for the miniseries Elizabeth I. The production was filmed largely in Lithuania, where Horn and O'Neill worked with local teams of tailors and costumiers. Jeremy Irons was only available at minute for fittings, so three costumes had to be produced within twenty-four hours when he arrived the day before shooting. Horn and O'Neill won a Primetime Emmy and a Costume Designers Guild Award for their work on the series.

In 2007, O'Neill returned to his Shakespearean days with a stage production of Macbeth, starring Sir Patrick Stewart. This version of the play, directed by Rupert Goold, was set in a twentieth century military dictatorship. Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington praised the production's "magnificently realised... plausible world", singling out Lady Macbeth's "kitchen pinny" as a tangible detail of realism.

The Damned United (2009) brought O'Neill back to the twentieth century in the North of England, an adaptation of David Peace's novel about Brian Clough, the real-life manager of football team Leeds United. O'Neills' final credit was for four episodes of Season 2 of BBC drama Accused, a contemporary drama starring many notable actors from British film and television.

Filmography Film Year Title Director Notes 1995 I.D. Phil Davis 1996 Hard Men J. K. Amalou 2005 Heidi Paul Marcus 2009 The Damned United Tom Hooper Television Year Title Notes 1987 ChuckleVision 1 episode 1988 The Satellite Show 13 episodes 1989 Roland's Rat Race 7 episodes 1990 Children's Ward 8 episodes 1991 G.B.H. 7 episodes 1992 In Suspicious Circumstances 1 episode 1992-1995 Prime Suspect 6 episodes 1993 Maigret 6 episodes 1996 Hamish Macbeth 3 episodes 1998 Our Mutual Friend 4 episodes 1998 Undercover Heart 3 episodes 1999 Plastic Man 2 episodes 1999 The Waiting Time Television film 1999 David Copperfield 2 episodes 2001 Love in a Cold Climate 2 episodes 2002 Night Flight Television film 2002 Fields of Gold 2 episodes 2002 Daniel Deronda 4 episodes 2003 Charles II: The Power and the Passion 4 episodes 2004 North & South 4 episodes 2005 Elizabeth I 2 episodes 2006 See No Evil: The Moors Murders 1 episode 2007 Mansfield Park Television film 2008 Fairy Tales 1 episode 2008 The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall Television film 2009 Hunter 1 episode 2010 Great Performances 1 episode 2010 This September 2 episodes 2012 Accused 4 episodes

Awards and nominations Major associations BAFTA Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.British Academy Television Awards 1999 Best Costume Design Our Mutual Friend British Academy Television Craft Awards 2002Best Costume Design Love in a Cold Climate 2003 Daniel Deronda 2004 Charles II: The Power and the Passion 2006 Elizabeth I

Emmy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.Primetime Emmy Awards 2006 Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special Elizabeth I

Miscellaneous awards + Award Year Category Nominated Work Result Ref. Costume Designers Guild Awards 2003 Outstanding Made for Television Movie or Miniseries Elizabeth I

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