Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Makeup Man

Makeup Man: From Rocky to Star Trek The Amazing Creations of Hollywood's Michael Westmore by Michael Westmore with Jake Page (2017) 320 pages

I added this to my collection because of the Star Trek connection. Only about 60 pages deal with his time designing aliens for Roddenberry's franchise. I loved the early part of the book covering his family's history in hair and makeup. His apprenticeship with John Chambers of Planet of the Apes makeup fame was interesting. And establishing his special effects makeup cred by working on both Rocky and later Raging Bull was significant. There are stories of his work experience on many other lesser known projects too. He's made a lot of Neanderthal character makeups. Each story is pretty short, maybe too short, and draws on his memory. There are some cases where my film history knowledge makes me doubt that his memories are totally accurate. Hollywood's history of sexism is also revealed in some of his narrative. This wasn't quite all that I was hoping it would be.
 

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