Charles D. Tomlinson was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He attended Mars Hill College (then a junior college), where he majored in Drama and graduated in 1951. Mr. Tomlinson continued his studies at the University of Miami, where he earned a B.A. in Theatre. He then attended at the Slade School of Art in London.
Charles Tomlinson lived and worked in London, New York City, and Los Angeles before retiring to Winston-Salem. During a long and distinguished career, he designed sets and costumes for hundreds of plays and musicals in over fifty countries on five continents. Dozens of ballets featured his designs, including those of the Jose Limon Dance Company during a thirteen-year collaboration. Tomlinson's ten feature films include "The Return" with Anne Lloyd Francis and "Balboa" with Tony Curtis and Carol Lynley. Among his television credits are five seasons of "Three's Company" and six "Dom DeLuise Comedy Hour" episodes. In addition to his design work, Charles Tomlinson taught at the University of California at Irvine and the University of California at Los Angeles, as well as the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City.