Introduction
This is not a "applying for a job" resume. Rather, it's an informal reference of what I've done, but with
a relaxed commentary about various items or phases of my life.
Beginning with a few basics, I was born in Los Angeles, in 1948
and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. I attended Hollywood High, and got my first taste of filmmaking in my senior year, when I
made a Super 8 film satire of the Teen Dance Shows popular on TV at the time. I then went on to Los Angeles Valley College,
taking courses in theater arts and filmmaking.
I learned the basics of theater makeup there, as well as all general film skills
(camera, lighting, editing, etc), and then I took an Advanced Stage Makeup course offered by Mike Westmore. The instruction included
making prosthetics. During that class, Mike announced that there was an opening at Universal Studios, for a makeup artist for the
Studio Tour, and I applied and was accepted.Thus began my career as makeup artist at Universal Studios, 1969, doing the Makeup Show.
I
continued experimenting with prosthetic makeups, and did Freelance Prosthetic Makeup work creating prosthetics for the Blackenstein
monster in the movie “Blackenstein” 1970
I worked on the ABC TV "Lil Abner" special, doing appliance makeups. Also did "Dating
Game", "Newlywed Game", "Lawrence Welk Show" and 11O'Clock newscasters makeups.
Some independent features I worked on included:Timber
Tramp, Snatch, Richard Petty Story, and a Purina Catfood Commercial.
I started teaching makeup in 1971 and promoted to director
and supervising instructor of Elegance International, the first professional makeup artist school. I was the director from 1973 to
1979. I taught salon, theater, film makeup, prosthetics, and high fashion.
1980 returned to private practice as makeup/prosthetics
artist.
My film credits in the 80’s include:
Doc R&D
Savage Harvest
The Boogins (a minor horror cult classic)
Dead and Buried
Swamp
Thing (first one)
Brainstorm
Witch
Beastmaster (first one)
New Kids
Quest for Fire
Better Off Dead
No Man's Land
Return of the Living Dead
Where
the Boys are 1984 (custom “love doll” called inflatable Dave)
Baby
Blind Date (Mechanically animated erotic sculptures for art gallery
scene)
Micki & Maude (custom props)
The Man who Loved Women (dog stunt double)
Heaven and Earth (Dian Fossey Bio) prototype work
only, on making real chimpanzees look like gorillas. My work isn’t in the actual film, but it’s impressive experience none the less.
ABC
TV show Orang Suit
1985 - Alchemy 2, working with Ken Forsee, inventor of the Teddy Ruxpin doll, for the ABC TV special on Teddy that
Ken’s company produced. I was a foam latex suit specialist among the costume fabrication crew.
1987 - The Munsters Today - prosthetic
designer and key makeup/wig designer on the pilot episode and first show of the series.
AST Computers - parody of 2001 Dawn of man
sequence, with me designing five ape suits and servo motor animation of heads for facial expressions.
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese “Alice
in Wonderland” parody (I did the prosthetics for the Mad Hatter character, faithful to the Tenniel illustrations).
Goolab Toys aliens
Gold
Elephant
What Waits Below
Hugga Bunch
Three Breasted Chicken
Quest for Burger
Chevy Metamorphous
Foam Latex Puppet Fabricator - working
for puppeteer Tony Urbano, molding and casting foam latex puppet heads for numerous jobs for him over 15 years.
I resumed
teaching makeup part time at a vocational school called "Learning Tree", where I started courses on makeup and prosthetics from 1987
to 1994
Transition to Other Media - Having grown weary of doing zombies and swamp monsters, desiring to prove my skills were
up to the challenge of excellence and realism, I started creating superbly realistic wildlife sculptures of full scale animal figures
and museum quality prehistoric human ancestor models. In 1988, I took the “Best in World Recreation” award at the world taxidermy
championships (and won again in 1992).
1998 Started working at Creative Presentations, Inc, Valencia CA, hired to help them develop
a capability to enter the museum market and compete with Dinamation and Kokoro. While there, I designed, sculpted and figure finished
a Gigantopithecus figure as a museum showcase figure (and photos of me beside it now populate many Bigfoot websites), was project
manager on the LA County Natural History Museum Bird exhibit, was designing sculptor and project manager on the T Rex for Knotts Kingdom
of the Dinosaurs upgrade. I was designer of a realistic bald eagle figure for an Indian Heritage Visitor Center in Vancouver, worked
on an ET stroller costume for Universal Studios (that later got replaced with an animatronic figure), and oversaw the refitting of
the Gigantopithecus figure into a “Bigfoot” figure for the IAAPA trade show in 1989.
I was promoted to VP (one of four) in 1989,
when John March moved up to President and Gene Bullard moved up to Chairman. I left CPI in August 1990 to resume my career as independent
artist.
1991 Commissioned by the French National Museum of Natural History to create two animatronic models of Archaeopteryx,
for their renovation of the Grand Gallerie of Zoology.
1992 - returned to CPI as freelance artist for the Fuji/San Rio dinosaur
show, sculpting the 23’ Tarchia dinosaur.
1992 - returned to World Taxidermy Competitions to take home my second “Best In World
Recreation” award.
During this year I also teamed up with the San Diego Museum of Man to create a joint venture exhibit “Faces
on Fossils” , that showed both the evolution of humans and how the appearance of these ancestral forms is created. It debuted in San
Diego successfully, and then went on a five year exhibit rental tour across America. The figures I created are now part of a permanent
installation at that museum.
1993 - Started working at AVG as contract sculptor and figure finisher, doing numerous tigers for
a theme park job of theirs, and then helping them get the bid for the 1993 Fuji/San Rio dinosaur show. I was AVG project manager as
well as figure designer, lead sculptor and figure finishing lead.
While there, I also helped sculpt and design the 65’ dragon
for the Excallibur Hotel in Las Vegas.
While working at AVG, one of my innovations in molding technology so impressed Alvaro
Villa that he applied for a patent for the technology, with me principle inventor. As I understand, a sudden lack of business and
revenues about that time caused him to “tighten the belt” and cut non-essential costs, and the patent attorney fees were non essential,
so the application was suspended.
AVG hired me as animatronic skin technician and sent me to Taiwan (with two mechanical technicians)
to help open a dinosaur exhibit based on both the 1992 Fuji/San Rio dinosaur exhibit (that CPI did) and the 1993 exhibit AVG did.
I was the only person who had worked on both parts, and was invaluable in all the visual repairs (the exhibits had been in storage
containers for several years) as well as the general assembly of the larger elements and creatures (including a 45’ sauropod).
In
1993 and 1994, I received a contract to outfit a new Archaeological Theme Park in Holland (Archeon, in the town of Alphen Rhine) with
a full set of prehistoric wildlife figures showing the evolution of life first in the sea, then on land, and finally human evolution.
Sadly, this enterprise never reached profitability, and closed a few years later.
Other museum projects included;
Chimps for Educational exhibit, Japan
A commission for a Natural History Museum in Kyoto, Japan was for creating three
prehistoric cats, the small Dinictus, the classic Saber-Toothed Cat, and the giant Cave Lion.
Potomac Museum Group
Mammoths
A commission for the Tokyo Broadcasting Commission and the World T Rex Expo was for showing the evolution of
flight with three figures, the small dinosaur Compsognathus, the proto bird Archaeopteryx, and finally a modern Peregrine Falcon.
A commission for the Ashland Oregon Museum of Natural History was for two bald eagles.
Gorilla Rentals - Buddy, Disney
animation, San Bernardino Museum, Maryland Museum
Film industry work in the mid 90’s included an animatronic bear for a Hostess Twinkie
commercial,
Extensive makeup, wigs and prosthetics for the TBS TV series “The Chimp Channel”.
Working with Animal Makers in 1996 and
1997, I created chimpanzee figures for the HBO Jane Goodall promo spot that won a Cleo, green wing macaws for a Texaco commercial,
a bald eagle for a Anhiser Busch commercial, and some dog prosthetics for a Pepsi commercial.
1997 I went digital, beginning
my work in computer graphics.
My work with Bryce was so unique that MetaCreations (Bryce’s developer) hired me to create graphics
for a product promotional campaign, “Bryce, the Eighth Wonder of the World (Because with it, you can create the other Seven)!”
With that commission, I created all seven ancient wonders of the world using only the Bryce software, nothing else. 1998-1999
2000
Computer Graphics World magazine ran a four page portfolio of my Seven Wonders artwork. Then in 2002, in their 25 year retrospective
of milestones in computer graphics, my portfolio of work was recognized as one such milestone.
2000-2001 - Hired by Jester.com
to create VRML scenes of the Great Pyramids, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, an NFL stadium, and the Great Wall of China where website
visitors could move through the scene while chatting with others online. I used 3D Studio Max, exporting my files to VRML 1 formats
for Jester to use. Like many internet ventures, this one folded a while back.
2002-2008 Freelance Digital Graphics artist.
That brings me up to date, with hopefully a lot more to come.
