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Jack Pierce

Known For
Costume & Make-Up

Known Credits
9

Gender
Male

Birthday
May 5, 1889 (137 years old)

Place of Birth
Valdetsyou, Greece

Jack Pierce

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Known For

Costume & Make-Up

1962The Creation of the Humanoids...Makeup Artist
1960Beyond the Time Barrier...Makeup Artist
1960The Amazing Transparent Man...Makeup Artist
1958I Bury the Living...Makeup Artist
1958Giant from the Unknown...Makeup Artist
1957The Brain from Planet Arous...Makeup Artist
1956Affair in Sumatra...Makeup Artist
1956Prima Donna...Makeup Artist
1956No. 5 Checked Out...Makeup Artist
1955The Titanic Incident...Makeup Artist
1953No Escape...Makeup Artist
1951Tales of Robin Hood...Makeup Artist
1950Blades of the Musketeers...Makeup Artist
1949The Pilgrimage Play...Makeup Artist
1949Master Minds...Makeup Artist
1948Joan of Arc...Makeup Artist
1947Time Out of Mind...Makeup Artist
1947The Egg and I...Makeup Artist
1947Buck Privates Come Home...Makeup Artist
1947Doctor Jim...Makeup Artist
1946Magnificent Doll...Makeup Department Head
1946Temptation...Makeup Artist
1946The Brute Man...Makeup Artist
1946The Killers...Makeup Department Head
1946Black Angel...Makeup Supervisor
1946Canyon Passage...Makeup Artist
1946Tangier...Makeup Artist
1946Her Adventurous Night...Makeup & Hair
1946Dressed to Kill...Makeup Department Head
1946The Cat Creeps...Makeup Artist
1946She-Wolf of London...Makeup Artist
1946House of Horrors...Makeup Artist
1946The Spider Woman Strikes Back...Makeup Artist
1946Little Giant...Makeup Artist
1946Terror by Night...Makeup Department Head
1946Little Miss Big...Makeup Department Head
1945Scarlet Street...Makeup Artist
1945House of Dracula...Makeup Artist
1945Pursuit to Algiers...Makeup Department Head
1945The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry...Makeup Artist
1945The Jungle Captive...Makeup Artist
1945The Naughty Nineties...Makeup Artist
1945Sudan...Makeup Artist
1944The Mummy's Curse...Makeup Artist
1944House of Frankenstein...Makeup Artist
1944The Climax...Makeup Artist
1944Gypsy Wildcat...Makeup Artist
1944The Mummy's Ghost...Makeup Artist
1944Jungle Woman...Makeup Artist
1944Cobra Woman...Makeup Artist
1944Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves...Makeup Artist
1943The Mad Ghoul...Makeup Artist
1943Flesh and Fantasy...Makeup Artist
1943Son of Dracula...Makeup Artist
1943Phantom of the Opera...Makeup Artist
1943Captive Wild Woman...Makeup Artist
1943White Savage...Makeup Artist
1943Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man...Makeup Artist
1942The Mummy's Tomb...Makeup Artist
1942The Ghost of Frankenstein...Makeup Artist
1941The Wolf Man...Makeup Artist
1941Man-Made Monster...Makeup Artist
1940The Mummy's Hand...Makeup Artist
1940The House of the Seven Gables...Makeup Artist
1940Black Friday...Makeup Artist
1939Tower of London...Makeup Artist
1939Son of Frankenstein...Makeup Artist
1938Wives Under Suspicion...Makeup Artist
1937Let Them Live...Makeup Artist
1937Night Key...Makeup Artist
1936Two in a Crowd...Makeup Artist
1936Show Boat...Makeup Artist
1936Dracula's Daughter...Makeup Artist
1936The Invisible Ray...Makeup Artist
1935The Raven...Makeup Designer
1935Werewolf of London...Makeup Artist
1935Bride of Frankenstein...Makeup Artist
1935The Good Fairy...Makeup Artist
1934Imitation of Life...Makeup Artist
1934Great Expectations...Makeup Artist
1934Half a Sinner...Makeup Artist
1934The Black Cat...Makeup Artist
1933By Candlelight...Makeup Artist
1933The Invisible Man...Makeup Artist
1933The Kiss Before the Mirror...Makeup Artist
1933The Big Cage...Makeup Artist
1932The Mummy...Makeup Designer
1932Back Street...Makeup Artist
1932White Zombie...Makeup Artist
1932Murders in the Rue Morgue...Makeup Artist
1931Frankenstein...Makeup Artist
1931Dracula...Makeup Artist
1930King of Jazz...Makeup Artist
1928The Last Warning...Makeup Artist
1928The Man Who Laughs...Makeup Artist
1926The White Black Sheep...Makeup Artist
1926The Lady of the Harem...Makeup Artist
1925The Wanderer...Makeup Artist

Acting

2015Jack Pierce: The Man Who Made the Monstersas Self (archive footage)
2008He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierceas Self (archive footage)
1997Midsomer Murdersas Grady Felton
1929Masqueradeas Second Reporter
1928The Circusas Man Operating Ropes (uncredited)
1927The Isle of Sunken Goldas
1922Riders of the Lawas Pete Gushard
1922The Man Who Waitedas Black Pete
1917The Enchanted Kissas Dwarf