Rick Baker | |
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Born | Richard Alan Baker December 8, 1950 Binghamton, New York, U.S. |
Alma mater | Academy of Art University (BA) |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1967–2018 |
Spouses | |
Children | 2 |
Richard Alan Baker (born December 8, 1950), known professionally as Rick Baker, is an American retired special make-up effects creator and actor. [1] He is mostly known for his creature designs and effects. Baker has won the Academy Award for Best Makeup a record seven times from a record eleven nominations, beginning when he won the inaugural award for the 1981 horror comedy film An American Werewolf in London . [2]
Baker was born on December 8, 1950, in Binghamton, New York, to Doris (née Hamlin), a bank teller, and Ralph B. Baker, a professional artist. He and his family moved to Covina, California when he was less than 1 year old. [1] [3]
As a teenager, Baker began creating artificial body parts in his own kitchen.[ citation needed ] He also appeared briefly in the fan production The Night Turkey, a one-hour, black-and-white video parody of The Night Stalker (1972), directed by William Malone.[ citation needed ] Baker's first professional job was as an assistant to prosthetic makeup effects veteran Dick Smith on the 1973 film The Exorcist . [2] [4] While working on The Exorcist, Baker was hired by director Larry Cohen to design and create a mutant infant for Cohen's 1974 film It's Alive . [5]
At the 54th Academy Awards, Baker received the inaugural Academy Award for Best Makeup for his work on An American Werewolf in London (1981). [6] Subsequently, he has been nominated for Best Makeup ten more times, winning on seven occasions, both records in his field. [2] Baker also created the werecat creature Michael Jackson transforms into in the music video Thriller (1983). [7]
In 2008, he was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. [8] Baker also contributes commentaries to the web series Trailers from Hell for trailers about horror and science fiction films. [9] Baker claims that his work on Harry and the Hendersons (1987) is one of his proudest achievements, for which he won his second Oscar. [10] On October 3, 2009, he received the Jack Pierce Lifetime Achievement Award at the Chiller-Eyegore Awards. [11]
On November 30, 2012, Baker received the 2485th star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located in front of the Guinness World Records Museum. [12]
On May 28, 2015, Baker announced his retirement, saying: "First of all, the CG stuff definitely took away the animatronics part of what I do. It's also starting to take away the makeup part. The time is right, I am 64 years old, and the business is crazy right now. I like to do things right, and they wanted cheap and fast. That is not what I want to do, so I just decided it is basically time to get out. I would consider designing and consulting on something, but I don't think I will have a huge working studio anymore." [13] [14] [15]
In 2018, Baker was approached by DC Comics, due to his daughter Veronica working for them at the time, if he would be interested in creating a collectible display bust for them. He agreed with the following terms that he would be left alone with total creative freedom and DC accepted them. Baker, with the aide of his long-time mold maker Rob Freitas, created a bust of The Joker. [16]
Baker played the title role in the 1976 remake of King Kong. He had initially only been hired to create an ape suit that would fill in for scenes where it was not practical to use a life-sized mechanical version of Kong that had been designed by Carlo Rambaldi, but problems with Rambaldi's creation resulted in Baker playing Kong on-screen for almost all of the film. [17] In the 2005 remake, he had a cameo as the pilot and gunner (with director Peter Jackson) who shot down Kong. He has also made cameo appearances in: Michael Jackson's music video Thriller (1983) as "Zombie Opening the Crypt"; Into the Night (1985) as a drug dealer with a business card; Men in Black II (2002) as "MIB Passport Control Agent", an MIB agent helping provide aliens with disguises; Men in Black 3 (2012) as "Brain Alien"; The Wolfman (2010) as "Gypsy Man / First Killed"; The Strain as a convenience store customer (2014, Episode 8, uncredited) and Rings (2017) as a flea market vendor. [18]
Baker is married; he was previously married to Elaine Melba Parkyn for ten years. He met his second wife, hairstylist Silvia Abascal, while they were both working on Into the Night (1985). [3] Baker and Abascal had their first daughter, Veronica in 1989 and their second, Rebecca, in 1993. [19]
Year | Nominated work | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1982 | An American Werewolf in London | Best Makeup | Won |
1985 | Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes | Nominated | |
1988 | Harry and the Hendersons | Won | |
1989 | Coming to America | Nominated | |
1995 | Ed Wood | Won | |
1997 | The Nutty Professor | Won | |
1998 | Men in Black | Won | |
2000 | Life | Nominated | |
2001 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas | Won | |
2008 | Norbit | Nominated | |
2011 | The Wolfman | Won |
Year | Nominated work | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1985 | Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes | Best Make Up/Hair | Won |
1996 | Ed Wood | Nominated | |
1997 | The Nutty Professor | Won | |
1998 | Men in Black | Best Special Effects | Nominated |
2001 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas | Best Make Up/Hair | Won |
2002 | Planet of the Apes | Nominated |
Year | Nominated work | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1978 | Star Wars | Best Make-up | Won |
1979 | The Fury | Won | |
1981 | The Howling | Nominated | |
1982 | An American Werewolf in London | Won | |
1988 | Harry and the Hendersons | Nominated | |
1991 | Gremlins 2: The New Batch | Best Special Effects | Nominated |
1995 | Ed Wood | Best Make-up | Won |
Wolf | Nominated | ||
1996 | Batman Forever | Nominated | |
1997 | The Nutty Professor | Won | |
The Frighteners | Nominated | ||
1998 | Men in Black | Best Special Effects | Nominated |
Best Make-up | Nominated | ||
1999 | Mighty Joe Young | Best Special Effects | Nominated |
2001 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas | Best Make-up | Won |
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps | Nominated | ||
2002 | Planet of the Apes | Nominated | |
2003 | The Ring | Nominated | |
2004 | The Haunted Mansion | Nominated | |
2011 | The Wolfman | Won |
Prosthetic makeup also known as special makeup effects or FX prosthesis, is the process of using prosthetic sculpting, molding and casting techniques to create advanced cosmetic effects. Prosthetics are used on stage and screen to create fantasy creatures, simulated injuries, or likenesses of other people.
An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 comedy horror film written and directed by John Landis. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, the film stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne and John Woodvine. The title is a cross between An American in Paris and Werewolf of London. The film's plot follows two American backpackers, David and Jack, who are attacked by a werewolf while travelling in England, causing David to become a werewolf under the next full moon.
Stanley Winston was an American television and film special make-up effects artist, best known for his work in the Terminator series, the first three Jurassic Park films, Aliens, The Thing, the first two Predator films, Inspector Gadget, Iron Man, and Edward Scissorhands. He won four Academy Awards for his work.
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Carlo Rambaldi was an Italian special effects and makeup effects artist. He was the winner of three Academy Awards: one Special Achievement Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1977 for the 1976 version of King Kong and two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects in 1980 and 1983 for, respectively, Alien (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He is most famous for his work in those two last mentioned films, that is for the mechanical head-effects for the creature in Alien and the design of the title character of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In 2017, he was inducted into the Visual Effects Society Hall of Fame.
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