(Above) I realized to my surprise that many of you know very little about Dick Smith. I hope to remedy that today.

Dick Smith practically invented special effects makeup as we know it. He founded the NBC makeup department in NYC in the late 1940’s, at a time when New York was a hotbed of live drama. It was a baptism of fire, and an incredible learning experience for Dick, who honed his talent for character makeup there. Little did anyone realize what a profound effect that would have on the art of makeup, and the generations of makeup artists who would follow in his footsteps.

“One of the biggest thrills in film making is helping an actor achieve a character. In all of my experience, I cannot think of anything else that comes close to the excitement of this art form. ” – Dick Smith

(Above) Notable gallery of Dick Smith makeups .  Top, L-R – Linda Blair in “The Exorcist”. Hal Holbrook in “Mark Twain, Tonight!”.  Possession makeup from “The Heretic”. Mayhem makeup from “The Sentinel”. Bottom, L-R – Fred Gwynne from “Arsenic and Old Lace”, an appliance beauty makeup for Dorothy Gray Cosmetics (Probably the first and last time a beauty makeup was done with prosthetics, says Smith), Max von Sydow as Father Merrin, in “The Exorcist”, and Jack Palance as Mr. Hyde, from “Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”.

Dick Smith started me in the business thirty years ago, in fact there are very few effects makeup artists that he did not give their start. Dick always had time for everyone. He was generous to a fault, and excited by anyone who showed passion and determination. My passion and determination earned me a place as one of those fortunate enough to have worked along side him out of the famous basement lab in Larchmont, New York…  along with a handful of amazing guys who made up the core group of Dick’s crew. I have to smile. At the Academy tribute last week, there were top notch guys who gushed on stage about just getting to do a life cast with Dick. Whoever planned the event missed the opportunity of getting the New York contingent on stage together, five of whom were present at the ceremony. These were the guys who lived the challenges, the terror, and the exhilaration of working with the master.

After last weeks tribute, and what it sorely missed, I realized that I must write my memories down, and share them. The further I get from those days, the more I realize that they were a part of Hollywood history, and something we will not see the like of again.

(Above) Of course everyone knows this one… Linda Blair as the hideously possessed little girl from “The Exorcist”. Dick remembers his heart sinking when he was introduced to Linda Blair. “The very first time I saw her,” recalled Smith, “My heart sank. She was a cute, apple cheeked, butterball nosed kid. If you want to suggest evil, you want someone who is generally lean, thin lipped, with deep set eyes, and a definite bone structure, none of which Linda had.” The Regan makeup seen in the film was the result of a trial and error process that lasted nearly a year, and a dozen different makeups. It was torturous for Dick. The Director, Billy Friedkin, was possessed in many ways himself, driving Dick mercilessly. Years later, Friedkin saw a documentary about Smith which outlined what it took to do just one prosthetic makeup, and he was appalled. He called Dick and apologized, saying that he had no idea. Friedkin had a trophy made which he presented to Smith in appreciation of the hell he had put him through. I remember seeing it in the bathroom as a toothbrush holder!

Although everyone remembers the demon makeup, IMO the crowning makeup of the film was Max von Sydow’s old priest, Father Merrin. Although easily as complex, it was the antithesis of the possession makeup, in that it would slip by the audience unnoticed. This particular makeup was the epiphany that made me want to be a makeup artist. Years after The Exorcist I saw von Sydow in another film… and he was young!  The realization that Father Merrin was played by a young man completely blew me away. It was from that moment forward that I began reading everything I could get my hands on about prosthetic makeup, and it wasn’t long before I realized that Dick Smith was the singular genius in the field. Then, miracle of miracles, I discovered that he lived a mere fifteen miles from me. The writing was on the wall.

(Below) Max von Sydow, before and after.

(Above) The old Salieri makeup from “Amadeus” which won Dick an Academy Award. “Amadeus” was a lavish depiction of the fictional interplay between real-life composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Dick was called in to age F. Murray Abraham onto the elderly Salieri, whose flashback confession to complicity in the decline and fall of his musical rival provides the film with it’s narrative structure. The average person looks at a makeup like this and says, what’s the big deal? That doesn’t look like much makeup to me! I remember Dick showing John Caglione and I pictures of Salieri and asking… ok! What isn’t prosthetic? John pointed to everything but. In fact, the only part of Abraham’s face that was not rubber, was his nose. By the way, the forehead is actually Dick’s, which he lifted off of himself by taking an alginate impression. So what did it take to make an invisible makeup like this?

(Below) The step-by-step transformation of F. Murray Abraham into the elderly Salieri. The mask is sculpted on a plaster copy of Abraham’s face in one piece, then cut into sections, floated off of the cast and blended onto smaller individual molds. This not only makes for easier application of the mask, but finer edges for blending invisibly into the skin as well. In the old days, masks were made in one impossible piece, and applying them was akin to trying to glue a floppy, struggling, octopus to someone’s face.

 

(Above) Yet another iconic Dick Smith makeup that everyone recognizes, Marlon Brando as Don Corleone in “The Godfather”

Brando’s makeup was a particular challenge for Smith because the actor refused to wear prosthetics. Brando, then 47, had to be aged 20-some years for his title role as the ruthless but principled Mafia Don. When Brando prove unreceptive to facial appliances. Smith instead used old age stipple, a liquid latex formula of his own design which would be “stippled” onto the skin, and stretched as it dried. When released the latex would form realistic wrinkles. The process is not as easy as it sounds by a long shot, and takes a studied eye and a master’s hand. One day when I was helping Dick clean out the lab, he came across a small styrofoam cooler, just large enough to hold a six pack. Inside was glued six soda cans. On each end of the cooler was a nozzle. I remember grinning,  because I couldn’t wait to hear what amazing solution this contrivance was invented for. Dick explained that stretch latex had a weakness in that as an actor sweated, sweat would collect under the rubber and cause it to turn white. Not so good. The solution? Dick would fill the cans with water, freeze them, and then attached a hair dryer set on cool to one of the nozzles. The other nozzle had a flexible hose attached to it by which Brando could direct the stream of cold air which issued from it, keeping the makeup fresh between takes. Ingenuity! Thy name be Smith!

Unable to use appliances to give Brando the jowly look associated with old age, Smith came up with yet another ingenious solution. Drawing on his early training in dental lab techniques, Dick fashioned what he called a “plumper” , which fit snugly between Brando’s lower gums and cheeks.  Fundamentally two sculpted pieces of dental acrylic connected by a wire, and snapped onto the actor’s teeth, thereby “plumping out” Brando’s lower cheeks. The effect was subtle and sensational.

(Above) Undoubtedly one of my all time favorite Dick Smith makeups, Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain in “Mark Twain Tonight!”

“Mark Twain, Tonight!” was a television presentation of the one-man show Hal had performed on stage over a period of years. Holbrook, an accomplished makeup artist in his own right, was accustomed to using theatrical makeup techniques to created a servicable resemblance to the noted humorist and author. It was realized that a more extensive makeup would be required to sustain the illusion in televised closeups. Working over a life cast of the actor, and with constant reference to historical photographs, Smith sculpted a striking likeness of Mark Twain. A four hour application covered Holbrook’s entire face with foam latex pieces, yet still gave him freedom of expression. “Mark Twain, Tonight!” earned Dick an Emmy for best makeup. Hal Holbrook is still doing his one man show around the country, and you would be rewarded by keeping an eye out for it. In the meantime, the televised version of “Mark Twain, Tonight!” is available on DVD, and it is an experience you will never forget.

(Below) Dick prepares actor Hal Holbrook for his television reprise of “Mark Twain, Tonight!”

(Above) How many times can I say “iconic makeup” in one article? This is Dustin Hoffman in “Little Big Man” as the 120 year old Jack Crab, the lone white survivor of the battle of Little Big Horn.

“Little Big Man” was Smith’s first big break on a Hollywood film. Hired by director Arthur Penn – with whom he had worked with on numerous television productions during the NBC years. In the course of the narrative, Smith had to transform Hoffman – then 31 years old – into a teenager, a gunslinger, a cavalry scout and a town drunk. Crucial to the success was Dick’s concurrent development of a technique whereby the makeup could be sculpted intact on a single life cast, then sliced into separate pieces and placed individually on secondary life casts where the edges could be feathered and overlapped. After much experimentation, Smith discovered that a thin coat of dental separator appled to the life cast prior to covering it with clay, would allow the finished sculpture to be floated from it’s plaster form by simply soaking it in water. Smith’s overlapping appliances, though derided by many of his contemporaries at the time – have since become the industry standard.

In addition to eight separate appliance pieces, Hoffman was fitted with another Smith innovation in the form of blinking eyelid appliances. Extremely thin foam latex pieces, the eyelids were attched at the top – just under the eyebrow – and at the bottom slightly above the eyelash. The area in between was not glued down. Thus, whenever Hoffamn blinked, the eyelid would fold and unfold realistically. Ironically Hoffman does not blink in the film!

(Above) Dick in the Larchmont basement lab, at work on the Jack Crab makeup. I studied this picture as a fledgling makeup novice, and eventually willed myself into it, as I spent many hours at this same counter.

(Above Left)  The sculpture in progress. (Center) Dick applies epoxy to the sculpture, thereby making a mold. (Right) Dick peels the delicate foam latex appliances from the mold after baking.

(Above) Step by step of the incredible makeup application which would transform Dustin into the 120 year old Jack Crab. Notice the hump appliance designed to give the young Dustin Hoffman a stooped appearance. I had the extreme pleasure of working with Dustin on Dick Tracy, and he is an absolute riot. More on that in a future article. By the way, if you have not seen “Little Big Man, do yourself a favor.

(Above) Dick Smith also pioneered the use of articulated puppet heads for the terrifying apparitions in “Ghost Story”. Here is Alice Kridge in various stages of decomposition.

(Below) Another absolutely wonderful makeup, in an absolutely wonderful movie – “The Sunshine Boys”, with Walter Matthau and George Burns. “They were both a delight.” Recalls Smith.  “My job was to age Walter.  Aging his face with “stipple” was easy but he had thick black hair, with a low hairline.  Bleaching is tricky, wigs have other problems, so I proposed thinning out his hair down to the roots and using my hair whitener.  Walter agreed.” So Dick literally went in and trimmed out each hair by hand with a pair of scissors, until  the desired effect was achieved. As the hair grew back over the course of shooting, Smith would run an electric razor over Matthau’s pate. The razor’s screen would selectively cut the shorter trimmed hairs. Genius. By the way… see this movie!

(Above left) Anthony Quinn. (Center) Quinn as Kubla Khan in “Marco The Magnificent”, and (Right) As the down and out boxer in “Requiem For A Heavyweight”.  “Working with Quinn was quite a baptism. ” Recalls Smith. “He’s a very active man, and trying to put appliances on him was hell. I literally had to take my left hand and force his head back against the headrest to keep him still!” Smith wasn’t too emphatic about it. He’d heard a rumor that Quinn had flattened his previous makeup man! “I tried to stay away from him as much as possible,” says Dick, but two years later, Smith was hired to make up Quinn as Kubla Khan for “Marco The Magnificent”. ‘When I met him in Paris for a makeup test, ” said Smith, “It was like old-home week. he threw his arms around me and gave me a big bear hug’ “You know, Dick,” he said, “What I liked about you was that you were so tough!”

(Below) ”Starred Sir Laurence Olivier as a character modeled after the painter Gauguin.” Recalls Dick. “ There were many make-up changes till he dies of leprosy, shown here.  We videotaped it in three long days.  Olivier was a prince to work with, and he paid me my greatest compliment. Dick, he said… the makeup does the acting for me!”

(Above) Another favorite makeup of mine, Jack Palance in “The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. Stuart Freeborn cast Palance’s face and shipped it to Smith. Dick was unprepared for what he saw.  “The mask was mammoth,” Smith said. “Overpowering! It looked like a gorilla’s mask. Palance has a huge flat face. The mask was like half a tree trunk, with that round flat feeling.” Smith was aghast because in makeup you can only add to a face, never subtract. While puzzling over this huge lump of plaster that lay before him, trying to figure out where to add something that would make some sense of it, Smith was suddenly reminded of a carving of a satyr made out of a half of a bone. That concept appealed to him and seemed to suit the modernity of the script with it’s psychological underpinnings. “After all,” said Smith, “a satyr is an amoral creature, not necessarily evil, but one who does evil things because he does not have the moral proscriptions that we have.”  Top left, Palance as himself. Top right, Smith corrected Palance’s flat, broken nose, making it as straight and handsome as possible. The bottom two shots are the full transformation into Hyde, a subtle, more believable Hyde makeup. It’s on DVD. Mind boggling!

(Above) ”Victoria Regina” -  Smith became a wizard of the fast change, aging Bloom from her late 20’s to her 80’s on live broadcast. With just two minutes for the first change at commercial time to turn her into a fat 40-year old, he and assistant Bob O’Bradovich strapped on makeup trays and worked side by side. A third assistant applied adhesive to the foam rubber appliances to cover her face and neck. “He just handed them to us,” said Smith, “and we just – plop – stuck them on.” With only 80 seconds for the second change, taking her to age 60, Smith had a dowagers hump sewn into a shawl which was simply thrown over her shoulders. Heavy eyelids standing ready, bags under the eyes, a chin appliance and forehead lines – on a rubber stamp! – were also added. Smith used a double for a short epilogue at age 80. “Claire was terrified. She was quaking through most of the program.”

(Above) William Hurt and Blair Brown wearing full body makeup for “Altered States”. The suit on the right was affectionately referred to as “Rare Blair”.

Smith spent the better part of two years on “Altered States”, a high profile project scripted by Paddy Chayefsky from his novel about a young psychophsyiologist who’s experiments in extreme sensory deprivation coupled with hallucinatory psychedelic drugs alter his state of consciousness and, ultimately, his mental and physical being. Smith and associate Carl Fullerton pioneered the use of inflatable micro-thin bladders, incorporated into facial and forearm appliances, to produce pulsating protuberances on William Hurt. A later altered state required three contorted body suits, with accompanying prosthetic appliances, in progressive stages of mutation.

(Below)  My three dear friends, Carl Fullerton, Kevin Haney, and Dick, prepare to take a full head and shoulder cast of Blair Brown in the legendary basement lab.

(Above) The startlingly real primordial man for “Altered States”. Instead of using a full ape mask, as was used in 2001, Smith used a complex appliance makeup. Smith fitted Miquel Godreau with the largest teeth that would fit his mouth, and built up his lips, cheeks, cheekbones and brow as much as possible with overlapping appliances. For the body, Smith opted against the conventional fur suit typical of movie apes because the design demanded very short body hair. The answer was ready made “mats” of body hair that could be glued on Godreau in sections, including a codpiece to subtly suggest genitalia. When the makeup was first modeled in Smith’s worksop, Godreau was down right scruffy. “I felt that a caveman was a pretty dirty animal,” Smith said. “We used a lot of grime and stubble hair on his face. We made his knees all leathery and calloused. Poor Miguel was almost continually uncomfortable.” Smith said. “He dreaded starting each morning because the glue was always so cold.”

(Below) The trials of Godreau. The left column shows Dick and Carl life casting Miguel. On the right the prosthetic application. The over-sized dentures had to be in place while the appliances were being glued onto the actors face.

(Above and below) For “The Hunger”, director Tony Scott’s feature debut about an immortal vampire and her consort who must kill to maintain youthfulness – Smith was engaged to produce progressive makeups for a scene in which Bowie was to age rapidly to 150 years old. Dick achieved the illusion with five discrete makeups. The first two employed subtle appliances and alterations to the hair and hairline, while the remaining three required full prosthetic coverage of the face.

The final two stages further incorporated the blinking eyelids and appliances for the hands. For the last stage, in which the vampire is completely hairless, Smith devised a means of casting a foam latex bald head from a mold using a core which he could disassemble and remove to produce a seamless one piece appliance.

(Above) The final stage of Bowies transformation to 150 years old.

The Hunger is where I came into the picture, and it was my college of prosthetic knowledge. The film had full body mummy suits, stunt dummies, old age makeups, and complicated effects. Lucky me, I was witness to the master creating his magic first hand, not to mention the other geniuses who were there helping Dick to achieve his vision… Carl Fullerton, Kevin Haney, Neal Martz, David Smith, Peter Montagna… Man, do I have some incredible memories… and I’m dying to tell you about them! Now that the groundwork has been laid, I can relate them to you, and they will mean something. Getting to work with Dick Smith was an incredible thrill, and an honor to be sure. During my thirty year career, I have been privy to some amazing experiences in the film business, but working with Dick was pivotal, and at the very top of the list of things I am most thankful for.

Last night at Dick’s 87 birthday party, Doug plants one on his hero.

 

Learn more about Dick Smith at his official website – http://www.dicksmithmake-up.com/

I want to acknowledge David Bartholemew from whose articles about Dick in Cinefantastique magazine I drew heavily from. As well as Randy Haberkamp from whose AMPAS Dick Smith Tribute program I also drew from.

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