1922: Master of Makeup

Dick Smith is born in Larchmont, New York

Wrinkly faces—wow! Bleeding limbs—ew! Movies absorb us completely into the action when makeup convinces us that a character really is 100 years old—or turning into a possessed demon before our terrified eyes. And over decades of work in TV and movies from The Exorcist and Taxi Driver to The Godfather and Little Big Man, makeup artist Dick Smith pioneered new techniques in the use of foam rubber, paint, fake blood, and other materials to generate stunning special effects.

Smith developed new ways to create masks for actors, using bits of latex attached to their faces one piece at a time (rather than one big piece that constrained their facial movements and looked more fake). He also experimented with prosthetics and small pouches called bladders that were inserted under an actor’s latex “skin” and manipulated to make it look like the actor had something creepy—a bug, a new body part, whatever—moving underneath.