Jack Pierce (makeup artist)

Jack P. Pierce, actually Janus Piccoulas ( born May 5, 1889 in Valdetsyou, Greece, † July 19, 1968 in Hollywood, California ) was one of the most important artist of the American film industry in the 1930s to the 1960s. He is famous as the creator of the classic horror movie characters of Universal Studios, like Frankenstein's monster or The Mummy.

Career

Pierce's family migrated with him to the turn of the century from their native Greece to the United States, they lived successively in the cities of New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, which they abandoned after the 1906 earthquake to Los Angeles. A short time later, he fell out with his family, changed his name and began to conceal his Greek origin.

In the 1910s and 1920s, Pierce worked for various studios as a stuntman, cameraman and later more and more frequently as an actor in numerous silent films in the 1920s as a makeup artist. In 1928, he was chief makeup artist of Universal Pictures. A short time later, the studio began with the film adaptation of classic novels showers. The first movie Dracula, he designed only the masks of the supporting roles as lead actor Bela Lugosi insisted to make his makeup himself.

The great success of Dracula drew a direct successor Frankenstein by itself, for the protagonist Boris Karloff, he designed the classic to this day make-up of the jobs created by Dr. Frankenstein monster. Pierce should be up in the 1940s remain Karloff mask images and created among others the Im- Ho -Tep mask for The Mummy. With the numerous sequels of Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy films in the 1930s and 1940s, he was always responsible for the mask. In 1943 he developed for Phantom of the Opera, the only color film of his time at Universal, the mask of the phantom, which is regarded as another milestone in the Monster make-up studio.

Some time later, in 1947, the Universal Studios parted from Pierce, since no other horror movies more should be produced.

As a result, Pierce worked mainly for television and low-budget films, his last major work was the head of the artist of the series Mr. Ed 1961-1964, before he died in 1968 almost forgot.

Overall, Pierce had as a makeup artist with well over 100 films, his work took place in 2002 through the documentation Jack Pierce: The Man Behind the Monsters a late assessment.