Dick Smith, 1922–2014

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left: Dummy head by Dick Smith for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1961); right: Cover art by Michel Atkinson (aka Michel) for The Unquiet Grave (1963).

Cinema in the 1970s would have been very different without Dick Smith‘s makeup artistry.

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Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man (1970).

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Marlon Brando in The Godfather (1972).

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Linda Blair in The Exorcist (1973).

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Robert De Niro in The Godfather: Part II (1974).

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Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (1976).

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William Hurt in Altered States (1980).

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David Bowie in The Hunger (1983).

3 thoughts on “Dick Smith, 1922–2014”

  1. I did that deliberately, it being the demon face from The Exorcist. Used to be that you could only see that if you paused the film when it appears for a few frames but it’s been over-exposed since, you can even find test shots and things. Friedkin himself spoiled its surreptitious creepiness by making it more obvious in his re-edited version of the film a few years ago. I think Dick Smith based it on Lon Chaney’s superb makeup for The Phantom of the Opera:

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ChaneyPhantomoftheOpera.jpg

  2. The dummy head for The Picture of Dorian Gray is very similar to Ivan Albright’s painting for the Hurd Hatfield film

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