(eerie music)
(girl gasps)
(dinosaur roars)
- There was this guy named Jack Pierce
who was the makeup artist that turned Boris Karloff
into the classic version of Frankenstein's monster
that we all know and love.
Pierce one said, "The sole reason for any makeup,
"and particularly character makeup,
"is not to proclaim the skill of the artist or the actor,
"but to help tell the story."
We're so used to movie special effects makeup
shocking us into suspending disbelief
that sometimes we forget about the artists behind the scenes
who help tell our favorite stories.
Here are five of the most groundbreaking
artists in the field.
(dramatic orchestral music)
Lon Chaney, Sr., is known as one
of the greatest actors of the silent era of film.
But did you know that he also did his own elaborate makeup
when he played the grotesque villains
who were scarred, mutilated or paralyzed?
You see, Chaney was raised by parents
who were both deaf and mute,
so he was already skilled in the art of pantomime
when he got to Hollywood.
And he enhanced this by altering his flesh
with cotton and wires and even fish skin.
The best tool in Chaney's arsenal
was a viscous liquid called collodion
that appeared like scarred skin.
He employed all of his tricks in his masterful performance
as the Phantom of the Opera,
going so far as to give himself nosebleeds
from a wire that made his nose turn up.
Remember that?
Chaney was such a master of makeup
that he was asked to write the entry for it
on the 14th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
(demonic groaning)
- Of the holy spirit!
By this sign of the holy cross, of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with the father and the holy spirit.
(neck creaking)
Damien! (demon growls)
- Remember in "The Exorcist" when a young Linda Blair
transforms into a vomiting demon
whose head spins around 360 degrees?
We can all thank Dick Smith for that monstrosity.
He built a fiberglass version
of Blair's head for that scene.
And what's even more impressive
is that he also made then-44-year-old Max von Sydow
appear to be 74 years old in the same film.
Over 40 years later, von Sydow finally started
to catch up to Smith's aging effects.
Smith also aged Dustin Hoffman 100 years in "Little Big Man"
and gave Marlon Brando
his infamous jowls in "The Godfather."
- I never wanted this for you.
- He won an Academy Award for his efforts
in 1984 for "Amadeus" and received
a lifetime honorary award in 2011.
Thanks to Smith's developments,
the industry now uses a more realistic technique
of layering facial molds as separating prosthetics,
instead of just having an actor wear a mask.
(screaming)
(groaning)
One of Smith's assistants on "The Exorcist" was Rick Baker,
who went on to create the horrifying transformation scene
in "An American Werewolf in London."
No CGI was used to pull this off.
It was all makeup and animatronics.
Baker won an Oscar for his work,
which is actually the very first
Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling award.
He also helped populate the cantina in "Star Wars,"
designed the 1976 King Kong
and raise the dead for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.
("Thriller" by Michael Jackson)
- If Jim is imagining it,
somewhere in his head he's got a feeling
and an idea of how it can happen,
how he can make it happen.
So, yeah, we can do that.
Can you push your right arm,
Malcolm, in a little further?
That's it.
It was months of research and development
to come up with a prototype,
which is all we ever come up with in this industry.
- Another protege of Smith's is Stan Winston,
who has won multiple Oscars and designed makeup
for "Aliens," "Terminator," "Predator,"
"Edward Scissorhands."
Whew!
In "Terminator 2," Winston designed a fiberglass replica
of Robert Patrick's head that would spring open.
Remember the scene where the T-1000 reforms
after being blown apart by a shotgun?
That was Winston.
Winston was so dedicated, he even built
full-scale animatronic dinosaurs
for the original "Jurassic Park."
(men screaming)
- Windows, blast him!
- [Voiceover] Get me outta here!
Get me outta here!
(skin ripping)
(man gasping)
- As Baker was a student of Smith,
he in turn passed his knowledge down to artist Rob Bottin.
Hired at age 14, Bottin learned on the set of "Star Wars"
before going on to create effects for "Robocop,"
"Total Recall," "The Thing," and "The Howling."
In that last picture, Bottin glued inflatable sacs
to the actors' faces to show them
transforming into werewolves.
During work on John Carpenter's horror classic, "The Thing,"
Bottin worked so hard that he was hospitalized
with exhaustion, double pneumonia, and a bleeding ulcer,
and he was only 21 years old at the time.
So, what movie has your favorite practical special effect?
I think mine's gotta be the first "Alien" movie,
so thanks Stan Winston for that.
Let me know yours in the comments below
and if you wanna learn even more
about groundbreaking special effects makeup,
check out our original list on howstuffworks.com.
It includes John Chambers' work
on "The Planet of the Apes"
and the disgusting zombies Tom Savini made
for the original "Dawn of the Dead."