John Chambers (make-up artist)

John Chambers ( born September 12, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois, † 25 August 2001 in Woodland Hills, California ) was an American artist.

Life

During World War II he served as a dental technician in the U.S. Army. There he had without the necessary medical training provide wounded soldiers, so as to replace severed limbs ( for example, ears and noses ) by prostheses.

Due to these abilities, he got in 1953 when NBC his first job as a makeup artist. The first mention in the credits of a movie got Chambers, however, only three years later, in 1956, in Michael Anderson's Around the World in 80 Days.

Over the next thirty years, Chambers was responsible for many successful movies and television series. So he created the Mask of Vulcan Spock in Star Trek and the gorilla -like appearance of the title character in Planet of the Apes. In the second part of the saga, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, he created the disfigured by nuclear war faces of the mutants.

1979/1980 worked with Chambers at the CIA rescue operation Canadian Caper, which is dramatized in Ben Affleck's film Argo. Here Chambers is played by John Goodman.

At Chambers' pupils included Michael Westmore and Maurice Stone, also science fiction artist.

John Chambers died in 2001 from complications of his diabetes.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Chambers was nominated four times for an Emmy and once for a Saturn Award.

In 1969 he received his most prestigious award, the honorary Oscar for best mask in "Planet of the Apes". Until 1981 called the Academy Oscar for "Best Mask" as a true category creator.

In addition, John Chambers was honored with a star on the Walk of Fame.