There are so many horror movies that make our watchlists every October. For makeup artists, it’s normal to see monster movies taking up most of the space on that list. These “creature features” started long ago in our motion picture history when the black-and-white creatures of the silver screen brought to life our fears and nightmares. We all have a makeup artist to thank for this: Jack Pierce. His makeup effects jump started the Golden Age of Horror in Hollywood and inspired stories, characters, and makeup artists for decades to come.
In the Beginning
A German immigrant, Pierce along with his family moved their way to sunny California. After failing to make the California pro baseball team he found his way to motion pictures. He worked a multitude of jobs in the film industry before offering up his services as a makeup artist.
While many actors, like Lon Chaney, did their own makeup Pierce insisted on supervising the makeup done on set. He stated that separating the actor from the makeup artist allowed the makeup to enhance the character rather than stand out on its own. It was his goal for the makeup to not look like a makeup. He achieved this according to a review from Monkey Talks (1927) that thought the well trained chimpanzee had human qualities. This “chimp” was actually an actor in makeup designed, created, and applied by Jack Pierce.
Designing Monsters
Even when actors insisted on doing their own makeup, such as Bella Lugosi for Dracula in 1931 (he had successfully played Dracula on broadway and didn’t want heavy prosthetic makeup affecting the way he portrayed the character), Pierce still made innovations for the makeup industry. Though he didn’t design the total look for Dracula, Pierce created the perfect color of green grease paint that looked deathly in the black and white film. He is also attributed with adding the iconic widow’s peak for Dracula’s hairline while working with Universal’s Head of Hair Department, Lily Dirigo.
“The art of makeup today is developing so rapidly that there is no such thing as an impossible makeup” (From Jack Pierce, the Maker of Monsters). A quote from the late 1920’s that still rings true today thanks to Jack Pierce. His iconic work not only withstands the test of time but inspires many other character makeups. There’s an uncanny similarity between Pierce’s The Invisible Man (1933) and that of Negative Man in Doom Patrol (2019-present). Many state that Pierce’s makeup for The Man Who Laughs (1928) inspired the DC comic book character The Joker (read more about that here). And it was this makeup look that got Pierce promoted to Universal’s Head of Makeup. A promotion that set Jack Pierce’s legacy in motion.
The Monster of all Monsters
The most well-known of Jack Pierce’s works is the Frankenstein Monster in Frankenstein (1931). The Frankenstein Monster reigns as the most famous monster of all time. It’s no surprise that this monster has withstood the test of time. Jack Pierce put in incredible work designing and making the creature. He said in an interview: “I read the book three times and from that I did research for six months before I created the Frankenstein Monster.” Pierce notes that Frankenstein was a scientist, and potentially based his surgery techniques on Egyptian surgical records. In Pierce’s mind, Victor Frankenstein essentially cut the top of the head off, put a brain in, and stapled another head on top. Then he added electrodes to the neck to allow electric currents to reanimate the body.
Every day of filming, Pierce worked with Boris Karloff for 3 hours to create the monster. He used cotton and collodion to build up the brow, morticians wax on the eyelids to make them droop, and a wig with a square cotton build underneath. Pierce created the sky gray colored grease paint to achieve a corpse-like flesh on Boris. To finish off the look, Boris Karloff took out his dentures and sucked in his cheeks! Pierce shaded in the hallowed features to accentuate them and the most iconic monster was born.
Creature Features on the Rise
After the success of both Dracula and Frankenstein, the Golden Age of Horror films began. Jack Pierce with Universal studios would produce many of the creature features we all know and love today. The Mummy (1932) earned Jack Pierce his one and only award for his incredible makeup designs. Films from The Wolfman (1941) to the Bride of Frankenstein (1935), paved the way for films like Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) all the way to An American Werewolf in London (1981) and beyond.
Pierce’s passion for makeup never dwindled even after he was unceremoniously let go from Universal. As devastating as that probably was to the artist, he never let his makeup genius falter and continued working. He began working on low budget thrillers popular with the teens at drive-in movies, proving that his innovation in the industry was truly based on talent rather than lavish budgets.
His 56 year career earned him the title of The Maker of Monsters and the film industry wouldn’t be the same without him. So this October, as you settle down with your popcorn to watch your favorite creature feature, don’t forget the monster maker who started it all.