William J. Tuttle, Master Movie Makeup Man, 95

[DGH]

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William J. Tuttle, Master Movie Makeup Man, Dies at 95

By MARGALIT FOX [New York Times]

William J. Tuttle, a Hollywood makeup artist whose work was so
renowned that he won an Oscar years before there was an official
Academy Award for makeup, died on July 27 [2007] at his home in
Pacific Palisades, California. He was 95.

Mr. Tuttle died of natural causes, his wife, Anita, said.

A longtime head of the makeup department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Mr.
Tuttle worked on more than 300 films. He won an honorary Oscar in 1965
for his work on "7 Faces of Dr. Lao," the first makeup artist to
receive the award. In his hands, the film's star, Tony Randall, was
transformed by turns into a Chinese man, an elderly Merlin, the
Abominable Snowman, Medusa, a giant serpent and other denizens of a
traveling carnival.

Although makeup artists lobbied for years for an Academy Award of
their own, the official Oscar for makeup was not inaugurated until
1981. The first winner was Rick Baker, for "An American Werewolf in
London." (In 1969, John Chambers received an honorary award for
"Planet of the Apes.")

For nearly half a century Mr. Tuttle was a master of the monstrous, an
artist of aging and someone who could make anyone look like death
warmed over. He turned Kirk Douglas into Vincent van Gogh in "Lust for
Life" (1956), men into Morlocks in "The Time Machine" (1960) and Peter
Boyle into Frankenstein's monster in "Young Frankenstein" (1974).

Often, of course, he was called on simply to make MGM's beautiful
women and handsome men look exactly like themselves, only more so. Mr.
Tuttle created makeup for many of Hollywood's biggest stars, among
them Judy Garland ("Summer Stock," 1950); Gene Kelly ("Singin' in the
Rain," 1952); Katharine Hepburn ("Pat and Mike," 1952); and Esther
Williams ("Million Dollar Mermaid," 1952), whose specialty by its very
nature made makeup a challenge.

Mr. Tuttle developed his own makeup line, Custom Color Cosmetics,
which is still manufactured. He also created life masks for a great
many film stars, which allowed prostheses like scars, wrinkles and
false noses to be custom-fitted even when the actors were not
physically present. About 100 of the masks are now in the collection
of the University of Southern California, where Mr. Tuttle taught for
many years. (Also included among Mr. Tuttle's handiwork are Cyd
Charisse's legs.)

His other films include "Royal Wedding" (1951), "The Band
Wagon" (1953), "Brigadoon" (1954), "Blackboard Jungle" (1955), "North
by Northwest" (1959), "Bells Are Ringing" (1960)," "The Courtship of
Eddie's Father" (1963), "Viva Las Vegas" (1964) and "Logan's
Run" (1976).

Mr. Tuttle's last film was "Zorro, the Gay Blade" (1981). He also
designed makeup for television, including episodes of "The Twilight
Zone."

William Julian Tuttle was born on April 13, 1912, in Jacksonville,
Fla. After his father abandoned the family when William was a
teenager, William dropped out of school to support his mother and
younger brother. He worked in vaudeville as a comic and violinist
before making his way to Hollywood in the early 1930s. There he found
work as an assistant to Jack Dawn, who later ran the MGM makeup
department.

Mr. Tuttle was married five times. His first marriage, to the actress
Donna Reed, ended in divorce, as did his third and fourth. His second
wife, Marie, died in 1961. He is survived by his wife, the former
Anita Aros, whom he married in 1965; and a daughter from his second
marriage, Teresa, of Los Angeles. A son, John, died before him, as did
his brother, Thomas, also a well-known Hollywood makeup artist.

According to published accounts, William Tuttle's career path was
secured early. In 1935, working as an uncredited assistant on "Mark of
the Vampire," he sealed his fate by making an especially attractive
bullet hole in the head of Bela Lugosi.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/04/movies/04tuttle.html?ref=obituaries