Ellamae Bertole, body makeup artist to the stars
Hyfler/Rosner
BYLINE: Christine Cole, Special to the Sentinel
In Hollywood, Ellamae Bertole's job was hands-on. As a body makeup artist,
she was in charge of any skin below the neck that would show on film.
"In those days, stars were supposed to be perfect, with no scars, moles,
blotches or bathing suit lines," said her daughter, Alison Kinsey of Eustis.
"She took great pride in making people look perfect all over."
Ellamae Bertole, who was known as "Bertsy" to her friends, died Tuesday in
Eustis. She was 74.
Born in Newark, N.J., she married Richard Smalley when she was 17. After
that marriage ended in divorce, she married Charles Bertole, and together
they set out for California in 1953.
When her husband found work at Warner Brothers as a grip, the person in
charge of moving and maintaining production equipment on a set, she went to
cosmetology school.
For a short time, she opened and operated a beauty salon until her husband's
connections helped her get a start in the movie business.
"It was difficult to get into studio work because the unions had a lock on
the jobs," Kinsey said. "And face makeup was a monopoly . . . but she was
able to slip in through the cracks."
Bertole polished the appearances of a long list of movie stars from the
1950s, '60s and '70s, Kinsey said as she looked through a box of photographs
autographed to her mother.
"She worked on Camelot with Vanessa Redgrave, she adored Natalie Wood and
worked with her on Love with the Proper Stranger," Kinsey said.
Flipping through the photos, Kinsey read off the names: Janet Leigh, Sean
Connery, Michael Rennie, Frank Sinatra, Jack Lemmon and Jeff Hunter. By the
1960s, Bertole also was working in television. Again, she made friends of
the stars. Kinsey said her mother enjoyed hearing Jim Nabors sing in his
trailer, when they worked on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
One of her favorite stories was about Red Skelton.
After a terrible automobile accident, which damaged the nerves in her face,
she stood with crutches near the curtain of Skelton's stage set. A group of
giggling young women was crowded around him, ignoring the disfigured
Bertole.
"Half her face was hanging there and the next thing she knew, Skelton was
standing next to her with his arm around her, pulling her into the group."
Eventually discouraged by the sporadic nature of work without union
membership, Bertole joined an electronics research firm. When she retired,
she joined Kinsey in Eustis.
Although she had married two more times, she changed her name back to
Bertole when she adopted her grandson, Blake, as her own son in 1986.
"She was devoted to him," Kinsey said.
She is also survived by former husband Charles Bertole, of Burbank, Calif.;
daughter Carla Anne Bertole, of Burbank; sons, Blake Bertole, of Eustis, and
Philip Bertole, of Toluca Lake, Calif.; five grandchildren; and five
great-grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at St.
Paul Catholic Church in Leesburg.
Beyers Funeral Home in Leesburg is handling the arrangements.