Academy Museum’s Dick Smith Screening Series: Horror Movies

In addition to galleries full of movie-making memorabilia and information for cinephiles to enjoy (including horror movie artifacts), the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures also offers special programs and series. One special program that recently started is the “Dick Smith: Godfather of Makeup” screening series.

Horror fans are often familiar with the faces of the actors from our favorite horror franchises. Sometimes we may even know what the writers, directors, and producers look like, but the faces we’re most familiar with are the actors. However, sometimes we forget about the incredible behind-the-camera talent who creates the memorable looks we love.

But people in the industry know who’s responsible. That’s why the Academy Museum is honoring one of them, makeup artist Dick Smith. He was a prosthetic makeup pioneer, but according to the Academy Museum, he “is best remembered for his realistic aging makeup.”

The special six-week screening series started on Thursday, July 20, with The Godfather and runs until August 24. All screenings take place on Thursdays starting at 7:30 pm.

Let’s look at the five remaining screenings because several are horror movies. One, in particular, (The Exorcist) is iconic, not to mention timely, since a much-anticipated reboot (The Exorcist: Believer) is coming out this October.

But first, let’s get to know Mr. Smith a bit better.

About Dick Smith

Here’s the bio the Academy Museum included with the “Dick Smith: Godfather of Makeup” screening series description:

For Yale pre-med student Richard Emerson Smith (1922–2014), a routine library trip would lead to his encounter with Paint, Powder and Makeup, a book that altered the course of his career from dentistry to the art of transforming actors through makeup. Known professionally as Dick Smith, the American special makeup effects artist got his start at WNBC-TV in 1945, where he worked as Department Head of Makeup through 1959 to develop his craft and reimagine the possibilities of prosthetics. Developing his methods and makeups from his Larchmont, New York, basement workshop, Smith is best remembered for his realistic aging makeup, most notably for Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb in Little Big Man (1970) and F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1984), the latter for which he won an Academy Award with Paul LeBlanc. Smith’s experimentation with materials went beyond full-face masks to employ multiple overlapping foam latex pieces, allowing actors a fuller range of facial expressions and resulting in massive shifts in the field. His career achievements were celebrated in 2011 with an Academy Honorary Award “for his unparalleled mastery of texture, shade, form and illusion.” To highlight Smith’s work on Marlon Brando’s makeup for The Godfather (1972), currently celebrated in our gallery The Art of Moviemaking: The Godfather, on view through January 5, 2025, this screening series showcases some of Smith’s greatest achievements in movie makeup magic.

Dick Smith Screening Series Movies

Here are the descriptions for the remaining movies in the series from the Academy Museum.

The Exorcist – Jul 27, 2023

Special guest: Introduction by Rick Baker, assistant to Dick Smith

William Friedkin’s screen adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel about a seemingly ordinary girl who becomes possessed by the devil presented filmgoers with unprecedented images of horror. Always aiming for realism even with his most fantastical creations, makeup artist Dick Smith’s process for finalizing actress Linda Blair’s transformation into the demonic Regan required weeks of camera tests and multiple application variations. Collaborating with special effects supervisor Marcel Vercoutere, Smith employed his mastery with foam latex to create a life-size body cast of Blair for the iconic, horrifying head-spinning scene and fashioned a hidden, plastic mouthpiece to produce Regan’s projectile vomit.

Altered States – Aug 3, 2023

Special guest: Introduction by makeup artist Craig Reardon.

For William Hurt’s film acting debut in Ken Russell’s adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s novel about a psychopathologist who turns to self-experimentation hoping for higher consciousness, makeup artist Dick Smith metamorphosized Hurt in various innovative ways. For one “altered state,” Hurt was outfitted with a full-body foam latex suit; for another, air bladders were affixed to Hurt’s body to create an unsettling swelling effect. The achievements in Altered States, The Elephant Man, and other films released in 1980 led to the creation of the Makeup category at the Academy Awards, inaugurated at the 1981 ceremony, and renamed Makeup and Hairstyling in 2012.

Scanners – Aug 10, 2023

“10 seconds. The pain begins. 15 seconds. You can’t breathe. 20 seconds. You explode.” Working with special effects supervisor Gary Zeller (Dawn of the Dead) and a team of special makeup artists including Stephan Dupuis (Robocop), Tom Schwartz (Galaxy of Terror), and Chris Walas (The Fly), Smith organized, designed, and fabricated makeups for the final scenes in Canadian genre master David Cronenberg’s science-fiction thriller with unnerving realism, again using inflatable bladders to create the bleeding, pulsing veins for the film’s climax and working with the special effects team to create unbelievable on-screen transformations.

The Hunger with House of Dark Shadows – Aug 17, 2023

Introduction to The Hunger by makeup artist Peter Montagna. Introduction to House of Dark Shadows by makeup artist Todd McIntosh.

The Hunger

To realize the rapid aging of David Bowie’s John Blaylock, a vampire promised immortality but not eternal youth by the exponentially more powerful Miriam (Catherine Deneuve), director Tony Scott called upon the legendary talents of advanced-age makeup expert Dick Smith, credited here for his “makeup illusions,” to gradually turn the mid-30s actor-musician into a desperate, 200-year-old insomniac over the course of a six-stage deterioration. Trained in miming techniques by Marcel Marceau protégé Lindsay Kemp, Bowie employs his experience with physical performance to convey John’s devastating plight beneath multiple layers of prosthetics.

House of Dark Shadows

It was during his tenure on the wildly popular ABC television series Dark Shadows in 1967 that Dick Smith began perfecting his aging makeup techniques for 175-year-old Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), experimenting with methods he would bring with him to MGM’s film adaptation just three years later, with Frid reprising his iconic role. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Smith was intent on developing his techniques not just for himself, but also to share with the next generation of makeup artists, to what he acknowledged was the entire industry’s mutual benefit.

Amadeus – Aug 24, 2023

Special guest: Introduction by makeup artist Gerald Quist.

Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Makeup for Dick Smith and Paul LeBlanc (Black Swan), Amadeus chronicles the rivalry between composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) in the court of Emperor Joseph II. Unanimously revered for Smith’s makeup depicting the weight of time on Salieri’s face, the authenticity also found in the masquerade party scenes as well as the day-to-day looks of the 18th century Viennese ruling class make the pair’s contributions to this beloved epic integral to the film’s verisimilitude.

Dick Smith Screening Series Ticket Info

Tickets are required to attend screenings at the Academy Museum. For this series, prices start at $5 for Students, $7 for Seniors, and $10 for Adults.

For More Info

Visit: https://www.academymuseum.org/en/programs/series/dick-smith-the-godfather-of-makeup

Check-In

Have you seen all the movies in the “Dick Smith: Godfather of Makeup” screening series?