Film genres like sci-fi, fantasy and horror movies are particularly interesting, as they require a great amount of special effects, extensive make up and creating prosthetics to bring the characters of the story alive. As a proper film geek, I would watch them too.
J. W. Rinzler (1962-2021) was a film historian and writer best known for publishing books about behind the scene blockbusters such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones. It comes as no surprise that he has also published a book about the seven-time academy winner for special make up effects creator and actor Rick Baker (b. 1950). The two-volume set takes its reader on a 40 years journey through the 20th and 21st century make up artistry starting with Baker watching Frankenstein (1931) at a very early age and thinking “It was great! – and at that point I decided I wanted to make monsters! …In my little kid’s mind, I really wanted to be Dr. Frankenstein”.1 His first complete mask was modelled on Christopher Lee’s character in the film “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1957) at the age of 12. On his 13th birthday, his parents granted him his wish to visit Universal Studios, secretly wishing to run into Bud Westmore (1918-1973), a famous makeup artist who had created the figure of Gill-Man for the film “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954). Of course, the wish remained unfulfilled but his parents managed to secure a visit to the studio of the makeup artist Verne Langdon (1941-2011) who passed on the contact details of Bob Burns (b. 1935) to the Baker family. Burns recalled upon looking at Baker’s creations “you could see the promise… right away”.2 Burns inspired much of Baker’s work that he created soon after their encounter and they frequently stayed in touch.
Writing a fan letter to his favourite makeup artist Dick Smith (1922-2014) in 1969 led to a meeting that would last 12 hours filled with advice, tools and techniques. Recounting in retrospect, “that was the most amazing day, a real life changer”.3 Baker’s first monster creation for a movie would be “Octoman” (1971) a low budget production that was released in the same year with a limited theatrical run before being sold to television. From there on, one project followed another and the list of films Baker would work on, reads like a movie encyclopaedia: “The Exorcist” (1973), “King Kong” (1976), “Star Wars” (1977), “Battlestar Galactica” (1978), “The Empire strikes back” (1980), “American Werewolf in London” (1981) for which he would win his first Oscar. Michael Jackson (1958-2009) had seen “American Werewolf in London” and requested Baker to work with him on his music video production “Thriller” (1983). Not wanting to repeat the same effects, together with John Landis (1951) he pitched the idea of zombies. Jackson’s album “Thriller” became the highest-selling of all time and the short movie was released on VHS tapes in various incarnations. A separate release of the “Making Michael Jackson’s Thriller” inspired many people wanting to become a makeup artist. The rest is history and can be discovered in detail in the two-volume publication about his work. In 2015 he announced that he would retire from the film industry. Ever since he has continued to create: “I was a fanboy who loves makeup … I would have done it for free, but don’t tell anybody”.4
1 Rick Baker, vol. 1, p. 14
2 Bob Burns, vol. 1, p. 21
3 Rick Baker, vol. 1, p. 41
4 Rick Baker, vol. 2, p. 347
