Thursday, March 17, 2011

Make Up Artists: Westmore Family.


Perc, Wally and Bud Westmore.
The Westmore family, has had four generations as make-up artists since George began Hollywood's, first opened his make-up department in 1917. He understood that cosmetic and hair needs were personal and would make up stars such as:


Mary Pickford, who he curled her famous hair daily by making false ringlets.


















The Talmadge Sisters.


















He fathered three generations of movie makeup artists, beginning with his six sons: Perc, Ern, Monte, Wally, Bud, and Frank. By 1926, Monte, Perc, Ern, and Bud had become the chief makeup artists at four major studios, and all continued to break ground in new beauty and horror illusions.



In 1921, Monte became Rudolph Valentino's sole makeup artist. When Valentino died in 1926, Monte went to Selznick International.














Thirteen years later, he was make up artiest for the film, Gone With the Wind (1939).



In 1923 Perc worked at First National-Warner Bros. and, over twenty-seven years, started beauty trends and disguises including, in 1939, the faces of:




Charles Laughton's, Hunchback of Notre Dame.
















Bette Davis's eyebrow less, white faced look in the film, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.
















In the early 1920s he blended Stein Pink greasepaint with eye shadow, preceding Factor's Panchromatic. Ern, at RKO from 1929 to 1931 and then at Fox from 1935, was adept at finding the right look for stars of the 1930s.


Wally headed Paramount makeup from 1926, where he created, Frederic March's transformation in, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde (1931).

















Frank followed him there. Bud led Universals makeup department for twenty-three years, specializing in rubber prosthetics and body suits such as the one used in, Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).








Together they built the House of Westmore salon, which served stars and the public. Later generations have continued the name, including brothers Michael and Marvin who have excelled in special makeup effects, such as in the films:


Blade Runner (1982).














Mask (1985).



















Raging Bull (1980).




Other films that the Westmore family did the make-up for:

George:

1922
Smilin' Through (Franklin)
1924
Secrets (Borzage)

Mont:
1922
Blood and Sand (Niblo)
1923
Monsieur Beaucaire (Olcott)
1924
A Sainted Devil (Henabery)
1925
Cobra (Henabery); The Eagle (Brown)
1926
Son of the Sheik (Fitzmaurice); The King of Kings (DeMille)
1929
Mexicali Rose (Kenton)
1932
Scarface (Hawks)
1934
The House of Rothschild (Werker)
1935
Mutiny on the Bounty (Lloyd)
1939
Intermezzo (Ratoff); Gone with the Wind (Fleming)
1940
Rebecca (Hitchcock)

Perc:
1925
Stella Dallas (H. King); The Lost World (Hoyt)
1934
Bordertown (Mayo)
1935
Captain Blood (Curtiz); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Reinhardt and Dieterle)
1936
Cain and Mabel (Bacon); The Story of Louis Pasteur (Dieterle); The Walking Dead (Curtiz)
1937
The Life of Emile Zola (Dieterle); Dead End (Wyler)
1939
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Curtiz); The Return of Dr. X (V. Sherman); Juarez (Dieterle); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Dieterle)
1941
Kings Row (Wood)
1942
Casablanca (Curtiz)
1951
The Blue Veil (Bernhardt)
1956
The Catered Affair (Brooks)
1966
Munster, Go Home! (Bellamy)
1969
The Arrangement (Kazan)
1970
There Was a Crooked Man . . . (Mankiewicz)

Ern:
1926
The Sea Beast (Webb)
1930
Cimarron (Ruggles)
1931
Way Back Home ( Old Greatheart ) (Seiter)
1932
A Bill of Divorcement (Cukor)
1937
Lost Horizon (Capra)

Wally:
1931
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Mamoulian); Island of Lost Souls (Kenton)
1933
Alice in Wonderland (McLeod)
1936
The General Died at Dawn (Mielstone)
1938
Spawn of the North (Hathaway); Professor Beware (Nugent)
1942
The Great Man's Lady (Wellman)
1961
Breakfast at Tiffany's (Edwards); One-Eyed Jacks (Brando)
1962
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford)
1963
Hud (Ritt)
1964
The Carpetbaggers (Dmytryk); Lady in a Cage (Grauman); Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Haskin)
1965
Harlow (Douglas)
1966
The Oscar (Rouse); This Property Is Condemned (Pollack)
1967
Barefoot in the Park (Saks)
1968
The Odd Couple (Saks); Will Penny (Gries)
1970
The Molly Maguires (Ritt); There Was a Crooked Man ... (Mankiewicz)

Bud:
1948
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (Pichel)
1954
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (Arnold)
1955
Tarantula (Arnold); This Island Earth (Newman)
1956
Creature Walks among Us (Sherwood); The Mole People (Vogel)
1957
Deadly Mantis (Juran); Land Unknown (Vogel); Man of a Thousand Faces (Pevney)
1961
Flower Drum Song (Koster); Lover Come Back (Delbert Mann)
1962
Lonely Are the Brave (Miller); That Touch of Mink (Delbert Mann); To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan)
1963
The List of Adrian Messenger (Huston); Captain Newman, M.D. (Miller)
1965
I Saw What You Did (Castle); The War Lord (Schaffner)
1966
Madame X (Rich); The Plainsman (Rich)
1967
Thoroughly Modern Millie (Hill); The War Wagon (Kennedy)
1968
Madigan (Siegel)
1969
Death of a Gunfighter (Smithee); Sweet Charity (Rosse); Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (Polonsky)
1970
Airport (Seaton); The Forbin Project (Sargent)
1973
Soylent Green (Fleischer)


Frank:
1942
Beyond the Blue Horizon (Santell)
1946
Tars and Spars (Green)
1947
Unconquered (DeMille)
1948
Let's Live a Little (Wallace)
1950
Storm Warning (Heisler)
1952
Rancho Notorious (F. Lang)
1953
All I Desire (Sirk)
1954
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Lamont)
1956
The Mountain (Dmytryk); The Ten Commandments (DeMille)
1957
The Joker is Wild (C. Vidor); The Buster Keaton Story (Sheldon)
1958
Hot Spell (Daniel Mann); Houseboat (Shavelson); The Match-maker (Anthony); The Buccaneer (Quinn)
1960
The Rat Race (Mulligan)
1962
My Geisha (Cardiff); Two for the Seesaw (Wise)
1963
Irma La Douce (Wilder)
1964
What a Way to Go! (Lee Thompson)
1965
The Flight of the Phoenix (Aldrich)
1970
Two Mules for Sister Sara (Siegel)
1971
Fool's Paradise (McLaglen); The Beguiled (Siegel)
1972
Kung Fu (Thorpe)
1974
The Towering Inferno (Guillermin and Allen); Mr. Ricco (Bogart)
1975
Farewell, My Lovely (Richards)

Please click here to view Westmore Museum Website.


10 comments:

  1. Thanks, Dawn. Great post. What talented bunch of men!

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  2. Love the post. Do you know if there's a book on the Westmores? If not, there should be. Perhaps you could write one :)

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  3. Classicfilmboy, Thank you, There is a book called, The Westmores of Hollywood. I just looked it up on, Amazon.

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  4. I just found a more completed list of movies that they worked as make up artiest and I added it to the bottom of the article. :)

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  5. http://westmoremuseum.wordpress.com/

    George Westmore Research
    Library & Museum

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you.. I added the Westmore Family website link to the bottom of the post.

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  7. hey you can see Sydney based mobile freelance hair and makeup artist providing service for film, television, wedding makeup, advertising, corporate, events and specializing in bridal makeup. they are amazing....

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for the invite. I will run over and check out your website.

    ReplyDelete

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