Dick Smith (make-up artist)
Dick Smith | |
---|---|
Special make-up effects artist | |
Years active | 1945–1999 |
Spouse | Jocelyn De Rosa (m. January 10, 1944) |
Children | 2 |
Richard Emerson Smith (June 26, 1922 – July 30, 2014) was an American
Early life
Smith was born in Larchmont, New York, the son of Coral (née Brown) and Richard Roy Smith.[2] He attended the Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut and Yale University, where he studied pre-med, with the intention of entering dentistry, although he majored in zoology.[3] After reading a book on theatrical make-up techniques[4] titled Paint, powder and make-up ; the art of theater make-up from the amateur and class room viewpoint (Strauss, Ivard),[5] he began applying make-up for the Yale drama group.[3] After graduation, Smith served in the U.S. Army during World War II.[5]
Early career in television
Smith entered the field full-time after the war, and was entirely self-taught. He sent photographs of his work to the film industry, but his work was rejected until his father suggested he might try the emerging new medium of television.
Prosthetic face masks were then normally made in one piece, but Smith made them in three foam latex pieces. Smith's technique allowed the actor to use their full range of facial expressions.
For a television adaptation of
In 1965, Smith published an instructional book, titled Dick Smith's Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-up Handbook, a special edition of Forrest J Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine series.
In 1967, Smith provided special make-up for two episodes of the supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows; in the storyline, vampire Barnabas Collins (played by Jonathan Frid)[9] was undergoing medical treatment to change him into a living human being. The experiment goes drastically wrong, and Barnabas ages rapidly, to the appearance of a man over 175 years old. Smith said that designing the make-up appliances for Dark Shadows "turned out to be valuable preparation for Little Big Man."[10]
Film work (late 1960s–1975)
In the film Little Big Man (1970), the 30-something Dustin Hoffman played a man in extreme old age at several points in the film — similar, and with a very similar makeup design, to Smith's work making the 40-something actor Jonathan Frid look 175 years old in the film House of Dark Shadows (MGM, also 1970).[n 1] "In the original book of Little Big Man, Dustin's character is 110," Smith observed, "but the director Arthur Penn just said out of the blue one day: 'Let's make him 121 instead'. I worked six weeks on the old age make-up, using photographic references for every wrinkle."[4] Smith also consulted Australian make-up artist Roy Ashton, having seen his work on the British horror film The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), in which Anton Diffring was made to appear of extreme old age.[11]
Smith had to use other methods, as an alternative to prosthetics, to create an aged Don Corleone in The Godfather (1972) because Marlon Brando was unwilling to have such appliances applied because of time considerations. Instead, Smith used stipple effects moving across the face from the actor's eyes.[12] A dental device called a "plumper" caused Brando's jowls to droop.[2] To depict the bleeding of characters after they had been shot, Smith said he "created the first ever bleeding special effects in this movie by creating bladders that were hidden under a foam latex forehead, with a squib that detonated the bladder, allowing blood to pour through a pre-arranged hole in the middle of the forehead."[4]
Smith was also one of the early pioneers of combining make-up with on-set "practical" special effects, beginning with
Film work (1975–1989)
Smith also created the make-up for Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle character in Taxi Driver (1976), as well as creating the effects for the blood-drenched finale.[15]
Smith and
Smith received a second Academy Award nomination for his work on Dad (1989), for which he was required to age Jack Lemmon, then in his mid-60s, into an octogenarian.[8]
Later life (1990–2014)
He later worked on films such as Death Becomes Her (1992), Forever Young (1992) and House on Haunted Hill (1999),[17] his last credit.[18] In later life, Smith concentrated on teaching his methods to up-and-coming make-up artists.[17] Smith was awarded an Academy Honorary Award for his life's work[3] in November 2011,[1] the first ever make-up artist to be so honored.[9]
Smith died in Los Angeles on July 30, 2014, at the age of 92,[5] survived by two sons.[19]
Partial filmography
- House of Dark Shadows, directed by Dan Curtis (1970)
- Little Big Man, directed by Arthur Penn (1970)
- Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?, directed by Ulu Grosbard (1971)
- The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola (1972)
- The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin (1973)
- The Godfather Part II, directed by Francis Ford Coppola (1974)
- The Sunshine Boys, directed by Herbert Ross (1975)
- Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese (1976)
- Marathon Man, directed by John Schlesinger (1976)
- The Deer Hunter, directed by Michael Cimino (1978)
- Scanners, directed by David Cronenberg (1981)
- Nighthawks, directed by Bruce Malmuth (1981)
- Starman, directed by John Carpenter (1984)
- Amadeus, directed by Miloš Forman (1984)
- Sweet Home, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (1989)
- Death Becomes Her, directed by Robert Zemeckis (1992)
- House on Haunted Hill, directed by William Malone (1999)
References
Notes
- ^ Smith had worked previously with Hoffman developing his Ratso Rizzo character's make-up for Midnight Cowboy, 1969.
References
- ^ a b Fowler, Brandi; Marquina, Sierra (November 13, 2011). "Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones, & Dick Smith Receive Honorary Academy Awards" E! Online.
- ^ a b Doug Tomlinson "Dick Smith Biography (1922–)". Film Reference. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
- ^ a b c "Dick Smith – Honorary Award", Oscars.org, 2011
- ^ a b c d Rodney Appleyard "Dick Smith – The Godfather of make-up" Archived 2016-04-28 at the Wayback Machine, Inside Film, 28 August 2008
- ^ a b c d Dick Smith Dies at 92; Makeup Artist of Vast Reach Yardley, William. The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e Nick Thomas (November 25, 2007). "Dick Smith, the Guy Who Changed the Face of Film". The Washington Post.
- ^ a b Valerie J. Nelson "Dick Smith dies at 92; 'Exorcist' makeup man won Oscar for 'Amadeus'", Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2014
- ^ a b Mike Barnes "Dick Smith, The 'Godfather of Makeup,' Dies at 92", Hollywood Reporter, 31 July 2014
- ^ a b c d Hillel Italie "'Godfather of Makeup' Dick Smith Dead at 92", ABC News (Associated Press, NYC), 31 July 2014
- ^ Smith, Dick. "Dark Shadows, Television Series – 1967". Dick Smith: Special Makeup Effects Training. Archived from the original on May 3, 2016. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
- ISBN 9780953192601. p. 50
- ^ Harlan Lebo The Godfather Legacy: The Untold Story of the Making of the Classic Godfather Trilogy, New York: Fireside, 2005, p.85
- ^ a b Lee Gamblin: A Personal Tribute to Make-up Legend Dick Smith Archived 2016-03-24 at the Wayback Machine, Fangoria, 16 January 2015
- ^ "'Godfather Of Makeup' Dick Smith Dies Aged 92". News.sky.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2014. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
- ^ Bouzereau, Laurent (1999). Making 'Taxi Driver' (Video). Los Angeles: Columbia TriStar Home Video.
- ^ "The 57th Academy Awards (1985) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ a b "Dick Smith, 'godfather of make-up', dies aged 92", BBC News, 31 July 2014
- ^ Kory Grow "Dick Smith, 'Exorcist' and 'Godfather' Makeup Artist, Dead at 92" Rolling Stone, 31 July 2014
- ^ "Dick Smith Dead: ‘Godfather of Makeup’ Dies at 92", Variety, 31 July 2014
External links
- Dick Smith's website
- Dick Smith at IMDb