{"id":63677,"date":"2014-07-31T15:02:38","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T14:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=63677"},"modified":"2014-08-01T08:59:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T07:59:26","slug":"exorcist-makeup-legend-dick-smith-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/news\/exorcist-makeup-legend-dick-smith-has-died\/","title":{"rendered":"The Exorcist makeup legend Dick Smith has died"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dick<\/a>
Dick Smith and friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dick Smith, known in Hollywood as ‘The Godfather of Makeup’, died 30 July, aged 92.<\/p>\n

Although Smith won an Oscar for his make-up work on the period epic Amadeus, his contributions to sci-fi, fantasy and horror are immense.<\/p>\n

Active as a make-up artist in Hollywood from 1941, Smith’s break-out work was on Roald Dahl-hosted 1961 anthology ‘Way Out<\/strong><\/em>, which was then followed by memorable contributions to numerous TV shows, including vampire soap Dark Shadows<\/strong><\/em>, where he depicted the rapid ageing of Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) in a two-part 1967 story.<\/p>\n

The early Seventies put Smith on the map, both in genre with his shocking work on 1973’s The Exorcist<\/strong><\/em> – the cracked lips and ghoulish pallor of Reagan McNeil (Linda Blaire) being one of horror’s most iconic visuals – and at the cutting edge of mainstream cinema with The Godfather<\/strong><\/em> and Taxi Driver<\/strong><\/em>, while the following decade saw him work on the likes of Scanners<\/strong><\/em>, The Hunger<\/strong><\/em>, Starman<\/strong><\/em> and The Exorcist<\/strong> <\/em>sequels.<\/p>\n

\"Smith<\/a>
Smith working with Linda Blaire on the set of The Exorcist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking to the Washington Post<\/em> <\/a>in 2007, Smith’s protege – and make-up legend in his own right – Rick Baker, commented, “The Exorcist<\/strong> <\/em>was really a turning point for makeup special effects.<\/p>\n

“Dick showed that makeup wasn’t just about making people look scary or old, but had many applications. He figured out a way to make the welts swell up on Linda’s stomach, to make her head spin around, and he created the vomit scenes.”<\/p>\n

“Even when the characters were fantastically weird, I always tried to make them believable,” said Smith in the same article. “Actors have to feel like they are the person they are portraying. I think my work has helped many to achieve that.”<\/p>\n

Smith leaves behind him not just an incredible body of work, but a legacy through those he worked with and inspired that will pay full tribute to his imagination and creativity for as long as there’s film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dick Smith, the makeup artist on The Exorcist, Dark Shadows, Scanners and more, is dead at 97<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":63678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615,3],"tags":[797],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/DickSmith.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}