Jack Pierce
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Jack Pierce (born Janus Piccoula; May 5, 1889 – July 19, 1968) was a Hollywood make-up artist best remembered for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (1931), along with various other classic monster make-ups for Universal Studios.
In the 1920s, Pierce embarked on a series of jobs in cinema—cinema manager, stuntman, actor, even assistant director, but within a few years he settled on mastering makeup. The head of Universal, Carl Laemmle, was won over with his creative abilities and hired full-time by the studio.
Universal's first "talkie" horror film, Dracula (1931), eschewed elaborate horror make-up. Pierce designed a special color greasepaint for Bela Lugosi for his vampire character, but Lugosi insisted on applying his own make-up. For all film appearances of the character thereafter, Pierce instituted a different look entirely, recasting Dracula as a man with graying hair and a mustache. The most significant creation during Pierce's time at the studio was Frankenstein (1931), with Lugosi originally cast as the Monster. Pierce came up with a design which was horrific as well as logical in the context of the story. So, where Henry Frankenstein has accessed the brain cavity, there is a scar and a seal, and the now famous "bolts" on the neck are actually electrodes: carriers for the electricity used to revive the stitched-up corpse.
As the head of Universal's make-up department, Pierce is credited with designing and creating the iconic make-ups for films like Frankenstein, The Mummy (1932), The Wolf Man (1941), and their various sequels associated with the characters. Utilizing his "out-of-the-kit" techniques, Pierce's make-ups were often very grueling and took a considerable amount of time to apply. Pierce was always reluctant to use latex appliances, favoring his technique of building facial features out of cotton and collodion, or nose putty. Pierce eventually started using latex appliances, most notably a rubber nose for Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man (1941) (the edges of the appliance are clearly visible through most of the film), and a rubber head piece for Boris Karloff in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939).
He did a great many historical, old age and character make-ups in TV anthology series such as Screen Directors Playhouse, You Are There and Telephone Time. One episode of that show, a drama called The Golden Junkman, featured Lon Chaney Jr. as an unlettered but kindly Armenian junk dealer who ages from his 30s to his 70s in the course of the story, which Pierce handled with aplomb.
Pierce died in 1968 from uremia.
Jack Pierce's enduring work at Universal has become a huge influence to many in the entertainment field, including make-up artists Rick Baker and Tom Savini. In 2003, Pierce was recognized with a lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood Make-up Artist and Hair Stylist Guild. In May 2013, Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles dedicated a memorial gallery in his honor.
Fotos
Películas (106)
Jack Pierce: The Man Who Made the Monsters
2015 · Self (archive footage)
He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce
2008 · Self (archive footage)
The Creation of the Humanoids
1962 · Makeup Artist
Beyond the Time Barrier
1960 · Makeup Artist
The Amazing Transparent Man
1960 · Makeup Artist
I Bury the Living
1958 · Makeup Artist
Giant from the Unknown
1958 · Makeup Artist
The Brain from Planet Arous
1957 · Makeup Artist
Affair in Sumatra
1956 · Makeup Artist
Prima Donna
1956 · Makeup Artist
No. 5 Checked Out
1956 · Makeup Artist
The Titanic Incident
1955 · Makeup Artist
No Escape
1953 · Makeup Artist
Tales of Robin Hood
1951 · Makeup Artist
Blades of the Musketeers
1950 · Makeup Artist
The Pilgrimage Play
1949 · Makeup Artist
Master Minds
1949 · Makeup Artist
Joan of Arc
1948 · Makeup Artist
Time Out of Mind
1947 · Makeup Artist
The Egg and I
1947 · Makeup Artist
Buck Privates Come Home
1947 · Makeup Artist
Doctor Jim
1947 · Makeup Artist
Magnificent Doll
1946 · Makeup Department Head
Temptation
1946 · Makeup Artist
The Brute Man
1946 · Makeup Artist
The Killers
1946 · Makeup Department Head
Black Angel
1946 · Makeup Supervisor
Canyon Passage
1946 · Makeup Artist
Tangier
1946 · Makeup Artist
Her Adventurous Night
1946 · Makeup & Hair
Dressed to Kill
1946 · Makeup Department Head
She-Wolf of London
1946 · Makeup Artist
The Cat Creeps
1946 · Makeup Artist
House of Horrors
1946 · Makeup Artist
The Spider Woman Strikes Back
1946 · Makeup Artist
Little Giant
1946 · Makeup Artist
Terror by Night
1946 · Makeup Department Head
Little Miss Big
1946 · Makeup Department Head
Scarlet Street
1945 · Makeup Artist
House of Dracula
1945 · Makeup Artist
Pursuit to Algiers
1945 · Makeup Department Head
The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry
1945 · Makeup Artist
The Jungle Captive
1945 · Makeup Artist
The Naughty Nineties
1945 · Makeup Artist
Sudan
1945 · Makeup Artist
The Mummy's Curse
1944 · Makeup Artist
House of Frankenstein
1944 · Makeup Artist
The Climax
1944 · Makeup Artist
Gypsy Wildcat
1944 · Makeup Artist
The Mummy's Ghost
1944 · Makeup Artist
Jungle Woman
1944 · Makeup Artist
Cobra Woman
1944 · Makeup Artist
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
1944 · Makeup Artist
The Mad Ghoul
1943 · Makeup Artist
Flesh and Fantasy
1943 · Makeup Artist
Son of Dracula
1943 · Makeup Artist
Phantom of the Opera
1943 · Makeup Artist
Captive Wild Woman
1943 · Makeup Artist
White Savage
1943 · Makeup Artist
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
1943 · Makeup Artist
The Mummy's Tomb
1942 · Makeup Artist
The Ghost of Frankenstein
1942 · Makeup Artist
The Wolf Man
1941 · Makeup Artist
Man-Made Monster
1941 · Makeup Artist
The Mummy's Hand
1940 · Makeup Artist
The House of the Seven Gables
1940 · Makeup Artist
Black Friday
1940 · Makeup Artist
Tower of London
1939 · Makeup Artist
Son of Frankenstein
1939 · Makeup Artist
Wives Under Suspicion
1938 · Makeup Artist
Let Them Live
1937 · Makeup Artist
Night Key
1937 · Makeup Artist
Two in a Crowd
1936 · Makeup Artist
Show Boat
1936 · Makeup Artist
Dracula's Daughter
1936 · Makeup Artist
The Invisible Ray
1936 · Makeup Artist
The Raven
1935 · Makeup Designer
Werewolf of London
1935 · Makeup Artist
Bride of Frankenstein
1935 · Makeup Artist
The Good Fairy
1935 · Makeup Artist
Imitation of Life
1934 · Makeup Artist
Great Expectations
1934 · Makeup Artist
Half a Sinner
1934 · Makeup Artist
The Black Cat
1934 · Makeup Artist
By Candlelight
1933 · Makeup Artist
The Invisible Man
1933 · Makeup Artist
The Kiss Before the Mirror
1933 · Makeup Artist
The Big Cage
1933 · Makeup Artist
The Mummy
1932 · Makeup Designer
Back Street
1932 · Makeup Artist
White Zombie
1932 · Makeup Artist
Murders in the Rue Morgue
1932 · Makeup Artist
Frankenstein
1931 · Makeup Artist
Dracula
1931 · Makeup Artist
King of Jazz
1930 · Makeup Artist
Masquerade
1929 · Second Reporter
The Last Warning
1928 · Makeup Artist
The Man Who Laughs
1928 · Makeup Artist
The Circus
1928 · Man Operating Ropes (uncredited)
The Isle of Sunken Gold
1927
The White Black Sheep
1926 · Makeup Artist
The Lady of the Harem
1926 · Makeup Artist
The Wanderer
1925 · Makeup Artist
Riders of the Law
1922 · Pete Gushard
The Man Who Waited
1922 · Black Pete
The Enchanted Kiss
1917 · Dwarf
