Bob Mackie, the costume designer born in Monterey Park whose sequined, feathered creations for Cher, Carol Burnett and Elton John earned him nine Emmy Awards, died Monday, Sept. 14, at 87.

Mackie died of pneumonia in Palm Springs, his publicist confirmed, according to LiveNow from Fox. His longtime design director, Joe McFate, confirmed the death to The New York Times, the New York Daily News reported.

His team posted a statement on his official Instagram account, saying he lived his 87 years to the fullest and fulfilled his lifelong dream of working as a costume designer.

Mackie's roots ran deep in the San Gabriel Valley. He was born in Monterey Park, raised largely by his maternal grandparents after his parents divorced, and attended Rosemead High School after moving in with his father. He studied advertising and illustration at Pasadena City College before enrolling in costume design at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, now part of the California Institute of the Arts.

He never finished. Legendary designer Edith Head spotted him, and by 1961 he was sketching for Paramount Studios, NPR reported. He spent the early 1960s as an assistant designer under Ray Aghayan at the studio.

Mackie's big break came when Mitzi Gaynor hired him to design costumes for her Las Vegas revue. By the late 1960s, he was the costume designer for "The Carol Burnett Show," a role he held for all 11 seasons. He designed an estimated 17,000 costumes for the show, about 50 per week.

One became iconic. For a 1976 "Gone With the Wind" parody sketch, Mackie built a gown with a brass curtain rod balanced across Burnett's shoulders. "That one's going to be carved on my gravestone," Mackie said in a 2016 interview with USA Today. That dress now sits in the Smithsonian.

It was on the Burnett set that Mackie met Cher. He went on to design costumes for "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" and kept dressing her for decades. His sheer, sequined "naked dress" for the 1974 Met Gala landed Cher on the cover of Time magazine, according to WWD. At the 1986 Academy Awards, he sent her onstage in black stretch pants, a bejeweled loincloth and a feathered Mohawk headdress.

Mackie won nine Emmy Awards across 32 nominations. He and Aghayan won the first Emmy ever awarded for costume design, for the 1966 NBC special "Alice Through the Looking Glass," Deadline reported. He earned three Oscar nominations and won a Tony in 2019 for "The Cher Show" on Broadway, designing more than 600 costumes for the production. The Television Academy inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2002.

A new generation of stars wore his archival designs, including Zendaya, who wore a Mackie gown to honor Cher at the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Mackie moved to Palm Springs in 2020 and became a fixture in the Coachella Valley arts scene. His costumes were on display at the Palm Springs Art Museum in January 2026.

He is survived by his granddaughter Alyssa Townsend, great-granddaughters Kyla and Keira Townsend, and his former wife, LuLu Porter.