John Napolitano

John Napolitano was a costume supervisor best known for his Emmy Award-winning work on the 1983 television mini-series The Winds of War. The dramatic miniseries, which starred Robert Mitchum and Ali MacGraw, followed the story of the trials of the Henry and Jastrow families in the early years of World War II.

He also contributed to the 1985 production Space, a 13-hour miniseries that based on author James A. Michner's fictional account of the American space program from the years after World War II to the Apollo landings on the moon in the early 1970s. The miniseries starred James Garner and Bruce Dern.

Additionally, Napolitano worked on the men’s wardrobe for the 1986 classic film Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise as a young pilot in the United States Navy. He also contributed to the films The Right Stuff, starring Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris and Dennis Quaid, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Gardens of Stone, starring James Caan, Anjelica Huston and James Earl Jones.

Napolitano was one of nine children, and grew up on a working fig ranch in Montebello, California. He was drafted into World War II, during which he served in the U.S. Army. After returning home in 1946, he started his career at Western Costume Company in Hollywood, California, as a specialist in military uniforms.

He worked at the company for 22 years, and in 1968 he moved on to Paramount Pictures. Over the course of his career he served as the military technical wardrobe advisor for such films as From Here to Eternity, To Be or Not To Be, Mule Train and Catch-22, and on the television series Hogan's Heroes, MacGyver, The Lucille Ball Show, Happy Days and Death Valley Days.

After retiring, he served as a consultant with Costume Rental Corporation, where he conducted classes and workshops on military uniforms and costumes.

In 2006, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the IATSE. He was a member of the IATSE’s Local 705, and was a member of the Television Academy.  

Napolitano died November 19, 2015. He was 93.