Nudie

He was an actor, known for Real Life (1979), Guns of a Stranger (1973) and The Jimmy Dean Show (1963). He was married to Helen Barbara "Bobbie" Kruger.

Made the red leather suit worn by John Lennon in which he appeared in on the 1975 "A Salute to Sir Lew Grade" television tribute, his last TV appearance as a performer.

One of his custom-designed, Western-themed automobiles, a 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville, hangs above the bar at country singer Buck Owens's Crystal Palace entertainment complex in Bakersfield, California. Owens won it in a poker game with Nudie and later bought a '72 Grande Ville "Nudiemobile." Though Nudie gussied up Cadillacs, he preferred Pontiacs as they were among the longest cars in the world.

Made an Elvis-like gold lame suit for ur-Dylan folk singer Phil Ochs that was widely ridiculed when the "folkie" Ochs went electric very late in his career in the 1970s.

In 1957, made the gold lame suit for Elvis Presley, which became famous and is featured on the cover of the 1959 compilation album "50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong." Nudie became friends with Tom Parker, Elvis' manager.

In the early years, he dressed country singers Spade Cooley, Cliffie Stone, Lefty Frizzell, and Tex Williams & his band. But it was in the early 1950s, dressing Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (eventually becoming their custom tailors) that made him famous.

Frist tailor to set rhinestones in clothing, in the 1930s.

His wife Helen Kruger, born 29 July 1913, nick-named Bobbie Nudie, died April 7, 2006 in Valencia, California.

Nudie was born on December 15, 1902 in Kiev, Russian Empire as Nutya Kotlyrenko.