FX Masters: Rick Baker

Hi everyone!

Rick Baker is actually one of the mostly known special effects makeup artist (SFX), because he uses techniques that allow him to achieve a realistic look at his characters. Some of the films where he has workedare: Men in Black, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars and An American Werewolf in London. Today you will learn a little bit of his history and some of his most representative works.

 Photo: Gizmodo

Biography

Rick was born in New York on December 8, 1950. As a child he was fascinated by monster movies, whose characters inspired him to become a special effects makeup artist.

Rick Baker and the world of makeup

Being very young -thanks to his talent- he worked as an assistant to DickSmith, from whom he learned the techniques and work ethic he uses when creating a character. Rick Baker was Dick’s assistant during the filming of the movie "The Exorcist".

Photo: PassionCinema

Before beginning his great career in film, Baker also made several works for television. One of the most important is the aging makeup he did for the character of Cicely Tyson in "The Autobiography of Jane Pittman", in that movie Cicely depicts a woman of 110 years old.

Photo: Themakeupgallery

Baker has a special fascination with gorillas, is so great his fervor to them that he has studied deeply both their behavior and physiognomy; this has helped him create a countless number of these characters in several films. One of the most representatives is the character of King Kong in the film version of Dino De Laurentis: Rick not only created the gorilla suit, but it used it and act to give more realism to the character.

Photo: Taringa

Another Baker's creations were the aliens that appear in the cantina scene in "Star Wars", he designed and made the characters quickly because he had only six weeks to create them.

Photo: Slashfilm

In "An American Werewolf in London" Rick was responsible for the design and application of the makeup for the main character. In this case the challenge was not only to create a terrifying wolf, but make the transformation scenes the most bloody and painful possible. It is important to note that thanks to the work of Baker in this movie, the Academy representatives decided to add a new category to the Academy Awards: "Best Special Effects".

Photo: ifc

One of his memorable works includes the design and application of the makeup for Michael Jackson and his dancers for the legendary video "Thriller".

Photo: Entertainment

Rick was the creator of a myriad of characters for both film and television, here we have his work for the movie "Men in Black".

Photo: Theendmag

Rick Baker is considered the "father" of some of the most memorable movie characters, so when he announced his retirement in 2015 many of us who followed his work asked ourselves: what does the future hold to the special effects makeup area?

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Until the next post!