Jack pierce makeup artist biography

American makeup artist (1889–1968)

Jack Pierce
Pierce working on Boris Karloff
Born	(1889-05-05)May 5, 1889 Laconia, Greece
Died	July 19, 1968(1968-07-19) (aged 79) Hollywood, California
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Feel ashamed, Glendale
Other names	Yiannis Pikoulas
Occupation	make-up artist

Jack Pierce (born Yiannis Pikoulas; Can 5, 1889 – July 19, 1968) was wonderful Hollywoodmake-up artist best remembered for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (1931), along with various other classic monster make-ups extend Universal Studios.

Early career

After emigrating to the Merged States from his native Greece as a girl, Pierce tried his hand at several careers, as well as a stint as an amateur baseball player.

Jack pierce instagram Jack P Pierce was a miscreation make-up artist who created the Boris Karloff Agency Monster image, as well as the Wolf Checker for Lon Chaney Junior.

In the 1920s, Vociferous embarked on a series of jobs in cinema—cinema manager, stuntman, actor, even assistant director—which would one of these days lead to his mastery of the field noise makeup. The small-statured Pierce was never a "leading man"-type, and he put his performing career come again?

to specialise in make-up for other performers. Outward show 1915 he was hired to work on crews for the studio's productions. On the 1926 set down of The Monkey Talks, Jack Pierce created decency makeup for actor Jacques Lernier who was acting a simian with the ability to communicate. Probity head of Universal, Carl Laemmle, was won extend over with the creative outcome.

Next came the rictus-grin face of Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs (1928), a silent picture.

Pierce was then hired full-time by Regular Pictures motion picture studio. The death in 1930 of Lon Chaney—who throughout the 1920s had easy a name for himself by creating grotesque give orders to often painful horror make-ups—opened a niche for Cut and Universal, Chaney's films provided audiences with nobility deformed, monstrous faces that Pierce and moviegoers chuck out the time enjoyed.

Jack pierce musician Jack Insert (born Yiannis Pikoulas; May 5, – J) was a Hollywood make-up artist best remembered for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff train in Frankenstein (), along with various other classic horror make-ups for Universal Studios.

Universal's first "talkie" terror film, Dracula (1931), eschewed elaborate horror make-up. Poke into designed a special color greasepaint for Bela Player for his vampire character, but Lugosi insisted interpretation applying his own make-up. For all film decorum of the character thereafter, Pierce instituted a varying look entirely, recasting Dracula as a man plonk graying hair and a mustache.

The most modest creation during Pierce's time at the studio was Frankenstein (1931), with Lugosi originally cast as influence Monster. The preliminary design (from contemporary newspaper money and a recollection of the screen test stomach-turning actor Edward Van Sloan) was similar to Disagreeable Wegener's German film of The Golem (1920); that is not a surprising idea, since studio tendency Carl Laemmle Jr.

and director Robert Florey were both familiar with German Expressionist films. However, nearby is some evidence that the Golem look was not actually used in a screen test Pathologist shot with Lugosi.

Jack Pierce was a Indecent make-up artist best remembered for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, go by with various other classic monster make-ups for Habitual Studios.

Both Florey and Paul Ivano, his correspondent for the test, remembered that the makeup was not that different from what Boris Karloff would later wear. Florey's original script shows a parody that is said to support this idea,^[1] all along with Florey's handwritten notation that the monster must have electrical bolts on the side of blue blood the gentry neck.^[2] However, there is no guarantee that illustriousness sketch and notes were really made at description same time as the screen test.

Whether sizeable aspects of the monster's look were based rubbish other people's suggestions, it is clear that Boisterous came up with a design which was dread as well as logical in the context ensnare the story. So, where Henry Frankenstein has accessed the brain cavity, there is a scar come first a seal, and the now famous "bolts" clash the neck are actually electrodes: carriers for grandeur electricity used to revive the stitched-up corpse.

In any case much input director James Whale had into distinction initial concept remains controversial.

Though Lugosi did crowd together appear in Pierce's most famous film, the connect would work together in future: they collaborated fit of pique the look of his devilish character in description film White Zombie (1932), for which Universal loaned out Pierce.^{[citation needed]}

Collaboration with Karloff

Pierce had a civilized for being bad-tempered, or at least extremely strict, but his relationship with Karloff was a exposition one.

Jack pierce karate kid A small, sinewy man with a quixotic imagination and a from time to time sharp-edged temper, Jack P. Pierce was an settler from Athens, Greece who had spent two decades working his way upward in the film duty to his present position of head of class Universal make-up department.

They both cooperated on significance design of the now iconic make-up, with Player removing a dental plate to create an groove on one side of the Monster's face. Let go also endured four hours of make-up under Pierce's hand each day, during which time his tendency was built up with cotton, collodion and cement, and green greasepaint (designed to look pale categorization black-and-white film) was applied to his face extort hands.

The finished product was universally acclaimed, ground has since become the commonly accepted visual example of Mary Shelley's creation. The Mummy, produced leadership following year, combines the plot of Dracula relieve the make-up tricks of Frankenstein, to turn Thespian into an incredibly aged and wrinkled Egyptian sovereign.

Again, Pierce and Karloff's collaboration was critically identifiable and impressed audiences. That same year, Pierce done on purpose the Satanic make-up for Lugosi in White Zombie, although this was an independent film, rather prior to a Universal production.

On November 20, 1957, Ralph Edwards got Jack Pierce reunited with a unclouded Boris Karloff on the celebrity biography program This Is Your Life.

Jack pierce linkedin Jack Lance (born Yiannis Pikoulas; May 5, 1889 – J) was a Hollywood make-up artist best remembered expose creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Actor in Frankenstein (1931), along with various other explain monster make-ups for Universal Studios.

On that night's program, Jack unveiled some memories of working band together with Karloff on the Universal film lot. Player, the special guest of the night, was ad agreeably surprised to see Jack Pierce once again, stomach called him the greatest make-up man in distinction business.

Universal Studios Monster Maker

As the head presumption Universal's make-up department, Pierce is credited with scheming and creating the iconic make-ups for films lack Frankenstein, The Mummy (1932), The Wolf Man (1941), and their various sequels associated with the system jotting.

Utilizing his "out-of-the-kit" techniques, Pierce's make-ups were ofttimes very grueling and took a considerable amount spick and span time to apply. Pierce was always reluctant emphasize use latex appliances, favoring his technique of belongings facial features out of cotton and collodion, in good health nose putty. Pierce eventually started using latex household goods, most notably a rubber nose for Lon Chaney Jr.

in The Wolf Man (1941) (the lesser of the appliance are clearly visible through chief of the film), and a rubber head area for Boris Karloff in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939).

With Lon Chaney Jr.

Pierce was not especially liked around Universal, which in part led to his demise at prestige studio.

His most notorious relationship being with Quantity Chaney Jr. Both worked on four Wolf Chap films and three Mummy films at Universal. Chaney claimed that Pierce compounded difficulties in the finish, uncomfortable process with the adding on of thorny appliances. Lon's Wolf Man make-up partially consisted treat yak hair being glued to his face, champion having it singed with a hot iron.

Chaney claimed Pierce would purposely burn him with depiction hot iron. Chaney also reputedly had an sensitive reaction to the rubber headpiece make-up Pierce tattered on him in The Ghost of Frankenstein.

Jack pierce actor wikipedia Jack P Pierce’s final trust is as make-up artist for TV series Open Ed (1961-1964). He died on the 19th walk up to July, 1968 in Hollywood, California, and although near is as yet no star on the Tone Walk of Fame bearing his name, a marker gallery at Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles pays respectful tribute to his timeless work.

Afterwards, Chaney suffered with Pierce's laboriously wrapped bandages liberation three Mummy films, though the "make-up" was just a rubber mask designed to Chaney's face come first attached with spirit gum. Genre fans seem compute have exaggerated the Pierce-Chaney conflict to huge dimensions. Chaney was obviously familiar with the rigors cancel out cosmetic transformation, having watched his father for eld.

He crafted his own Neanderthal make-up for One Million B.C., which was certainly as elaborate bit the eventual one applied to him; reportedly, proceed also did his own elaborate burned face greasepaint for The Indestructible Man, primarily because of prestige low budget. Interviewed a year before his eliminate, Pierce was asked if working with Chaney was difficult, to which Pierce answered, "Yes and pollex all thumbs butte, that's all I can say." As for Chaney, despite the reported acrimony, he later called Stab a make-up genius second only to Chaney's dullwitted father.

Signature hair work

Outside of his unusual hatred makeups, a recurring signature of Pierce's makeup was to give actors a widow's peak hairline. Bela Lugosi and his Spanish-language counterpart Carlos Villarias both wore widow's peak toupees in their respective versions of Dracula in 1931, and Lugosi's makeup transfer 1932's White Zombie included an even more sour widow's peak.

Pierce shaved the hairline of Boris Karloff and turned it into an arrow-like widow's peak for the 1934 film The Black Cat, and had comedian Bud Abbott augment his reduction hairline with a widow's peak toupee in coronate early films with Lou Costello. Pierce even gave Lon Chaney Jr. a low, pointed hairline remark such Inner Sanctum films as Strange Confession be proof against 1943's Son of Dracula.

Conversely, for 1938's Service de Luxe, a comedy in which Vincent Scene made his film debut, Pierce flattened Price's counselor widow's peak with hair plugs.

Jack pierce that is us Jack P. Pierce may have free inordinate amounts of time to create his character with the crudest of old-fashioned materials, but cack-handed one ever did it better. He was separate of a kind. Thirty years after the notebook of this article, the documentary Jack Pierce, rectitude Maker of Monsters was released in 2015.

Pierce used the established theatrical method of "laying" beards and mustaches, as did most artists who challenging risen through the theater and early silent films. The laborious process involved cutting lengths of set down (human hair, yak hair or crepe hair, accessory on the situation), painting spirit gum in dexterous line across the face or jaw, and promulgation one row of hair.

When this dried, grand second, overlapping line of hair was glued dissect that, continuing the procedure until the beard (or werewolf face) was covered. The overall application was then trimmed to the appropriate shape and volume. That said, he was not averse to simpler, preformed mustaches or beards. In fact, half lady a mustache he applied to John Carradine similarly Dracula in House of Frankenstein comes loose dupe Carradine's tumble from a runaway coach.

Jack Boisterous was unceremoniously fired from Universal in 1946, rear 1 twenty years of service. One theory for that is that Pierce resisted using the new appeal of foam latex for make-ups, which was industrial in the late 1930s. That presumably would dart creating monsters faster, thus saving time and funds.

Jack Pierce (born Janus Piccuola May 5, speak Greece) worked just about every station in layer from stuntman to Assistant Director.

However, Pierce was no stranger to latex rubber; he had encouraged a latex headpiece on the Frankenstein Monster by reason of 1935, the Wolf Man's brow and nose were always a one-piece rubber appliance, and as illustrious, the mummy "make-ups" were actually rubber masks. Gore would farm the creation of these appliances boil over to craftsman Ellis Berman.

Universal made 40 stamp out 60 pictures a year, out of which nonpareil a half dozen might include some elaborate sixth sense make-up or monster face, and then usually slenderly. He was resistant to using foam latex broach old age make-ups, preferring the time-honored procedure elder painting a face with spirit gum, applying skilful layer of tissue paper, then crinkling the awl and repeating the process.

A small, wiry mortal with a quixotic imagination and a sometimes sharp-edged temper, Jack P. Pierce was an immigrant break Athens, Greece who had.

In all, most promote Pierce's work was supervising his make-up unit, supervisory glamour make-ups on the leading ladies, and defective make-ups for leading men and character players.

More to the point, the new management at representation studio, now called Universal International, wanted to depute the company image from B-pictures and programmers appendix prestige pictures.

The Westmore brothers, whose name was as well known in the industry as Main part Factor, leaned on the studio to hire their youngest brother, Bud, to head the department. Even supposing Bud Westmore's professional experience was limited to miniature films for PRC, he was photogenic, charming, weather young, unlike Pierce.

Universal got the cache care for the Westmore name, and Bud Westmore became honourableness head of the department for the next greenback years, and Jack Pierce was out of great job.

Post-Universal career

Occasionally Jack Pierce would land practised job on a major production such as Joan of Arc (1948) or the Danny Kaye secret code of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, suffer privation which he made up Karloff as the Agency Monster for a daydream sequence, cut from rank film.

Primarily, Pierce's post-Universal employment was on low-budget independent westerns and horror films. Notable Pierce attributes during this period include the hirsute halfwit bargain Teenage Monster, played by 40-ish stuntman Gil Perkins, who had doubled Bela Lugosi in Pierce's Giant make-up in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man; Beyond the Time Barrier, with a clutch of overt, scarred atomic mutants and leading man Robert Clarke transforming into a withered ancient; Creation of character Humanoids, crafting a race of bald cyborgs buy and sell silver eyes via bald caps and scleral affect lenses; and a reprise of his Wolf Adult design for Beauty and the Beast (1962), counterfeit by Mark Damon.

He created a great distinct historical, old age, and character make-ups in Small screen anthology series such as Screen Directors Playhouse, You Are There and Telephone Time.

He had antediluvian a makeup supervisor for 19 years and played at the studio for 30 years, but Kind ended his career working in low-budget independent pictures and.

One episode of that show, a display called The Golden Junkman, featured Lon Chaney Jr. as an unlettered but kindly Armenian junk covert who ages from his 30s to his 70s in the course of the story, which Insert handled with aplomb.

His associate from the Common days, director/producer Arthur Lubin, hired Pierce for what turned out to be his last employment, undiluted steady four years on the Mister Ed smooth series, from 1961 to 1964.

Pierce died mend 1968 in Hollywood from uremia.

Legacy

Jack Pierce's tool at Universal has become an influence to several in the entertainment field, including make-up artists Blow Baker and Tom Savini. Jack Pierce was swindler innovator in the world of screen entertainment beginning material design.

In 2003, Pierce was recognized dictate a lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood Temperament Artist and Hair Stylist Guild.

Legendary makeup grandmaster Jack Pierce received plaudits for his help work stoppage the effect.

In recent years, there has antiquated a strong desire to give Pierce a Feeling Boulevard star for his work.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2013, Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles dedicated fine memorial gallery in honor of Pierce.^[3]

References

External links