Jack Dawn

John Wesley Dawn (February 18, 1891 – June 20, 1961)^[1] was an American make-up artist whose career spanned 37 years and over 200 films.

Life and career

John ‘Jack’ Dawson was born in Covington, Kentucky to John Henry Dawn and Marla Shelton Dawn.

As a boy on a

extra, portraying an Indian brave for $3 a day. He served with the British during World War I, then returned to the American film capital to work as a make-up assistant and part-time actor at Universal Pictures. One of his first creations was a stiff, uncomfortable mask he wore in the role of an ape in 1925. In order to make masks that were more elastic and lifelike, he began to experiment with a variety of materials. After nine years of research while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he developed a synthetic plastic he called vinylite resin' for which he received a patent. Its first application was to create the Chinese faces for the mostly white cast of The Good Earth

in 1937.

Two years later, he was assigned the task of giving life to three non-human characters—a

Munchkins

.

In 1943, he approached the San Diego Naval Hospital with an offer to help World War II soldiers whose faces and hands were disfigured in battle. He created inlays that helped them appear more natural between multiple plastic surgery procedures.

Dawn worked with many legendary Hollywood performers, including Laurel and Hardy, Greta Garbo, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Greer Garson, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Fred Astaire, and Betty Hutton.