Bob Mackie, the costume designer whose sequined, feathered creations for Cher, Carol Burnett and Elton John earned him nine Emmy Awards, died Monday, Sept. 14, of pneumonia in Palm Springs. He was 87.

His publicist, Jenelle Hamilton, confirmed the cause of death to CBS News. His longtime design director, Joe McFate, confirmed the death to The New York Times, the New York Daily News reported.

Mackie had become a fixture in the Coachella Valley arts scene after moving to Palm Springs in 2020. The Palm Springs Art Museum honored him at its Art Party 2026 Gala on Saturday, Jan. 24, with Carol Burnett presenting the Art Party Honoree Award. The museum ran the exhibition "Reflections of Glamour: Bob Mackie" from Jan. 26 through March 30.

Born Robert Gordon Mackie in Monterey Park in Southern California's San Gabriel Valley, he was raised largely by his maternal grandparents after his parents divorced. He attended Rosemead High School, studied advertising and illustration at Pasadena City College, then enrolled 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.

Mackie met Cher on the Burnett set and went on to design costumes for "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour," 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.

Elton John posted a tribute on Instagram on Sept. 14: "Every time I put something on that Bob made, I felt very, very special," the BBC reported.

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