All Poster Forum
Collecting and Collectibles in Other Areas => Show Us Your Other Collectibles => Topic started by: erik1925 on June 30, 2013, 04:26:48 PM
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I have collected a number of these over the years. These life casts, made of plaster, were originally made by makeup artists/departments for the creation of latex (or foam latex) appliances, to be worn by actors or used to develop other special effects. Here are a handful:
1930s-Katharine Hepburn:
1980s-Vincent Price:
1960s-Buster Keaton:
1960s-Peter Lorre:
Special FX makeup cast & sculpt of Tom Cruise, for Interview With The Vampire (1994):
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I find these so creepy Jeff - but still cool! Especially when the resulting cast is spot on to the actor
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I find them very cool, too, Chris. ;)
And unless added to, like the SFX Cruise cast, they will all be exact images of the actors, as the alginate material used to create the negative mold is applied right to the actors' faces.
Their expressions will usually appear straight faced, as tho sleeping, so that accurate appliances can be molded to their exact facial features. ;)
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Wow. Impressive and different.
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Impressive collection!!!!
Though ..I think they are a bit.. scary mary ...I can see.... dead.. people.......
Do you have Ryan Gosslyn? ;)
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Do you have Ryan Gosslyn? ;)
1:1 scale, and full body? ;)
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1:1 scale, and full body? ;)
Yes.. "everything" has been molded for his life cast.. full, 1:1 scale.
coffee
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Yes.. "everything" has been molded for his life cast.. full, 1:1 scale.
coffee
That must be a really tiny cast ;)
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Tiny cast for tiny roles. It's a "build up" process.
laugh1
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I say he needs an XL cast..... ;)
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I say he needs an XL cast..... ;)
It's all what one is used to......
But ... NEVER MIND.
;D
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It's all what one is used to......
But ... NEVER MIND.
;D
Yeah it's all relative.
At least wouldn't be hard to find the wall space to put up the 'cast' Rosa ;)
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Indeed!!! ;D
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Archrivals.....
Hammer-style: ;)
Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee
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Ari & Paul,
I flashed on you both, when I posted the 2 images above...LOL
cheers
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Very cool collectibles, Jeff.
Impressed and envious.
cheers
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With Sir Lee's passing, he and Mr Cushing are now together -- once again. cheers
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Ari & Paul,
I flashed on you both, when I posted the 2 images above...LOL
cheers
Sorry I missed this, thanks, Peter Cushing always was my favourite actor, from a very young age (I called him Pillow Cushion).
AND Mr Lee of course.
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Lestat is up for Halloween
The 2nd pic is the scene from the movie that this SFX makeup/life cast was taken for (a life cast of Cruise with makeup prosthetics) - when Claudia slashes Lestat's throat. It was an animatronic head, gaping mouth, slit throat and all, and not Cruise, at this point:
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These are so awesome. nice.thread
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Zowie!! Those are super nifty. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks, gents.
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Here is what I did when I was installing some drywall. I used the left over mud in my pan at the end of the day for a few days and put it in a foil mold of my ugly face.
and yes my skin is THAT wrinkled. ;) just noticed I scratched the date in it on the back "2013"
Jeff you might wanna pick this up cheap before I become an A-list movie star. eyeroll
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56630616/APF/forRUM%20pikts/LIFEMASK.jpg)
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Good job there, Jason.
And how do we know that you arent already, in fact, an A-list celeb? And that "Jason E" is just an alias?
hmmm.gif whistle.gif
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Ok I am busted. I own that very expensice Metropolis eyeroll L.D.
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Lestat is up for Halloween
(http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6498.0;attach=7046;image)
That is a sweet and creepy piece, Jeff.
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Thanks, mein brude!
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More of make-up maestro Dick Smith's incredible work, this one of the old age vampire makeup he sculpted & created for David Bowie, for the flicker
The Hunger (1983)
Smith was one talented guy, no doubt about it. thumbsup.gif
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Keep these babies coming, Jeff.
They are all incredible.
clap clap clap clap
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Another cast of Linda Blair in makeup, made for The Exorcist (1973)
(https://i.imgur.com/2f07bRY.jpg)
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Jack Nicholson in his Joker makeup, from BATMAN (1989)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ni1rhec.jpg)
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guess what Jeffe, all of these are not actual life masks, but artistic representations
I have abut 60 of them in my warehouse (boy would I love to sell them. cheap!) and when you have the same face and they are different sizes, it tells you at least one of them is not a real studio item, because Karloff's head is always going to be the same size if they are real
I would say more than half of the ones available on eBay and through the two major companies that sell them are not real molds and are just people cashing in on their ability as artists to recreate such items, without a caveat that they are not what they're being sold as
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Ive seen the crappy artistic recreations that some people offer, where they have taken, for example, a life mask of Glenn Strange and turned him into the Frankenstein monster by adding to the cast with clay, then re-casting that new creation. Some of those are terrible, and many look really bad. I do agree with you there.
That's not what these are here, however. ;)
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Spock, himself. (Tho Im not sure if this cast was taken & made for a Star Trek flick, or not)
Leonard Nimoy.
(https://i.imgur.com/pr3SscE.jpg)
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Erik, I've seen some that work on ebay; some of it is ok but most of them are really bad. The Glenn Strange Frankenstein was at one time decent, but the guy who works on them keeps changing them, often making them worse than before, like adding the top of a shirt or casting them with what appears to be their eyes open. If these guys would just offer them as regular life masks, without the added "improvements", there might be more interest.
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Erik, I've seen some that work on ebay; some of it is ok but most of them are really bad. The Glenn Strange Frankenstein was at one time decent, but the guy who works on them keeps changing them, often making them worse than before, like adding the top of a shirt or casting them with what appears to be their eyes open. If these guys would just offer them as regular life masks, without the added "improvements", there might be more interest.
I agree. Many of those on ebay are made by people in their basements, adding plasticine to a life cast they got somewhere, then trying their hand at sculpting, resulting in some of those real monstrosities. Others have been done with Karloff life casts, Charles Laughton (trying to do a Quasimodo face) and others.
I think some are now casting them in resin, as plaster is so heavy. And with increased shipping costs, some could cost a boatload to mail.
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I own exactly one. A Karloff Bride of Frankenstein sculpted over an early Karloff life mask. I bought it over 10 years ago from one of those guys on eBay. It's a decent sculpt without the fake shirt collar and is cast in heavy plaster. It must weigh 5 pounds.
What I don't understand is do these guys think that the masks with "open eyes" actually look good? There was a Humphrey Bogart mask with his eyes open and a full head of hair that looked awful! Worse yet was a Sean Connery Bond mask with open eyes, a From Russia With Love style 'do, and a hand holding a Walther PPK. Ugh!!
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I own exactly one. A Karloff Bride of Frankenstein sculpted over an early Karloff life mask. I bought it over 10 years ago from one of those guys on eBay. It's a decent sculpt without the fake shirt collar and is cast in heavy plaster. It must weigh 5 pounds.
What I don't understand is do these guys think that the masks with "open eyes" actually look good? There was a Humphrey Bogart mask with his eyes open and a full head of hair that looked awful! Worse yet was a Sean Connery Bond mask with open eyes, a From Russia With Love style 'do, and a hand holding a Walther PPK. Ugh!!
Those ones with re-sculpted open eyes are some of the worst looking, to me, too. That was done with the Laughton-Quasimodo example I mentioned before. Not good, imho.
A couple bad recreations, using an original life cast to start with:
(https://i.imgur.com/xa3qcci.jpg)
(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MHAAAOSwgStbCxIF/s-l1600.jpg)
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Do you have a pic of your Karloff cast that you could post, cabman? Would be cool to see.
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Do you have a pic of your Karloff cast that you could post, cabman? Would be cool to see.
these boxes are packed away, out of my way. I have like 60 of them and I would happily sell the whole group for $750 if I could find someone.
They're just taking up room.
I know one thing for sure, when you have a mask that says something like "copyright (insert mask company here)" they are almost always, not real life masks. The largest seller of these on ebay sells artistic recreations
here are some pics I shot when I was at the purchase of their poster collection. I am absolutely positive that the majority of these are absolutely NOT from real fake molds and are artistic representations
(http://www.comic-art.com/apf/masks_001.jpg)
(http://www.comic-art.com/apf/masks_002.jpg)
(http://www.comic-art.com/apf/masks_003.jpg)
(http://www.comic-art.com/apf/masks_004.jpg)
(http://www.comic-art.com/apf/masks_005.jpg)
(http://www.comic-art.com/apf/masks_006.jpg)
(http://www.comic-art.com/apf/masks_007.jpg)
(http://www.comic-art.com/apf/masks_008.jpg)
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There are definitely recreations/reworked life masks in that mix, there's no doubt about that.
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Nice looking cabinet those masks are in but God they look creepy! Like a shelves full of disembodied heads! :o
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Another monstrosity created by someone in his/her basement "lab."
Glenn Strange as Frankie, turtleneck sweater and all. ;D
(https://i.imgur.com/ctcv9IE.jpg)
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This is exactly what I'm talking about. That stupid sweater is unnecessary and looks terrible. I'll give the guy points for trying but the bust just doesn't look right. If he's going for the A&C Meet Frankenstein look, the hair is completely wrong. I did see a Glenn Strange Frankenstein bust some years ago on eBay that looked like it was cast from the genuine article.
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There are definitely recreations/reworked life masks in that mix, there's no doubt about that.
right, and I looked at some of the ebay dealers the deceased former owner frequented at the time and there is no mention about any just being artististic representations. My suspicions are that all sellers of these are no different.
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Here's a life mask of John Hurt. Again, I dont know what film the cast was taken for but he looked a bit older when it was done.
(https://i.imgur.com/6042qwf.jpg)
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Here's a life mask of John Hurt. Again, I dont know what film the cast was taken for but he looked a bit older when it was done.
(https://i.imgur.com/6042qwf.jpg)
I don't believe that is a real cast. it really lacks definition
I think that is an artistic representation
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It is an actual life cast. And it has tremendous definition, that maybe you cant see in the photo. But this is not a re-sculpted or re-worked item. I have no interest in those.
However, in some cases, older life casts can lack definition, when an original positive mask is used to create a new negative mold, from which new, positive casts are then made. Those next generations will have less fine detail.
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A great pic of Karloff posing with a full head life casting of himself, in one of the studio makeup departments, that has been added to, to create a Frankenstein headpiece, that would have been molded out of latex. This is how many latex appliances were made, by first sculpting them, in clay, on a life mask of the actor, so that the final latex piece was a custom fit.
Looking at Karloff and his age, maybe this was a shot taken when he appeared one last time as The Monster, in an episode of the 1960s TV series, "Route 66," or maybe it was nothing more than a publicity shot taken, at some other time.
(https://i.imgur.com/hZ31sA7.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/4ZfMSEA.jpg)
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Fantastic life mask photo of Karloff, Jeff! I'm so glad to see it. Okie
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Erik, the shot of Boris with the Frankie head was taken in the Universal prop dept. in the early 1960's, possibly as publicity for the Thriller TV show. If you look at the head closely, it's not Boris but Glenn Strange, probably from A&C Meet Frankenstein. It's a whole head casting; there are other photos from this session that show the head sitting on a table and you can see more of it.
The shot of Boris being made up as the monster is from the Route 66 Halloween episode "Lizard's Tale and Owlet's Wing". That episode also featured Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney as not only the Wolfman, but as Quasimodo and The Mummy.
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Maybe the Frankie head piece/casring for Strange was used for this incarnation of the Monster?:
(https://i.imgur.com/xMe4Ewk.jpg)
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Yes, most likely. The lightning bold scar on the forehead is a giveaway. Glenn's make-up as the monster in House of Frankenstein & House of Dracula was done by Jack Pierce, who hated working with foam rubber and did the Monster make-up the old fashioned way. Cotton, collodion, & spirit gum. So none of Jack's work would have survived.
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Even by BRIDE, Pierce knew he had to pick up the makeup pace as his original method was taking too long. His original FRANK forehead was built up layers of cotton and collodion, but by the time he was working on SON OF FRANK (and the later films with Chaney Jr, Lugosi, Strange), Pierce was creating pre-fabricated, molded rubber head pieces (not foam latex), for the Monster makeup.
Being thinner molded rubber, unless stored away and cared for, they would have dried out completely or fallen apart with age. They were likely removed from the actors at the end of the day and tossed (since a new appliance would then be used for the next days' shooting). :'(
(https://i.imgur.com/mRPTDqP.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/52pogB0.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/iWJ67kZ.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/fBKpDl4.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/gncEVFB.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/RcDwnMR.jpg)
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This cast, representing Ellen Sandweiss, as she appeared in THE EVIL DEAD (1981):
(https://i.imgur.com/nd3s5qF.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/mEYvgJn.jpg)
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Nice face on that Evil Dead cast! :o
Yes, that's exactly right about Jack Pierce doing the make-up for Frankie. Jack didn't care for it, but it did save everyone time when he fabricated the top of the monster's head out of rubber. I think he used the same method on the Wolfman's snout. I know with the Chaney Mummy films Jack used a full head rubber mask, but the hands were done the old fashioned way. I would love to know what happened to the full head and shoulders lifecast of Karloff.
The last shot of Karloff being made up is from a deleted scene cut from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The other man looking on is director Norman McLeod. During one of Mitty's daydreams he imagines that he's a doctor doing life saving experiments but instead revives Frankenstein's monster who chases him around the lab. The scene was shot, in Technicolor no less, but never made it into the final film. A pity, since it would have been great to see Karloff as the Monster in glorious Technicolor.
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Thanks. The EVIL DEAD cast does look quite dead...lol
And the Mitty scene may or nay not have ever been shot. There is question about that, to this day.
And if it was, hopefully, that footage will be rediscovered someday.
And Chaney's Wolf Man snout was cast in rubber. It was not nose putty.
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I tend to think the Mitty scene was shot. Why would Universal go to the trouble of giving a rival studio permission to use the make-up and give Pierce permission to apply it, and not film it? Remember Pierce was dismissed from Universal by this time and he needed Universal's ok to do the job.
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I tend to think the Mitty scene was shot. Why would Universal go to the trouble of giving a rival studio permission to use the make-up and give Pierce permission to apply it, and not film it? Remember Pierce was dismissed from Universal by this time and he needed Universal's ok to do the job.
Just letting you know what Ive read with regard to this scene in the film.
Aside from the several publicity photos that exist, with Karloff, Pierce, Karloff's wife, Evelyn and the film's director, no on set publicity shots have ever been seen or found. And that's a little unusual, too, since those would have made for some real buzz.
So we can hope it was shot or that at least some stills might surface.
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True. I know just about every Universal monster fan would love to see something form this scene, if it exists.
Could be that it's locked away in a film vault somewhere, like the George Reeves Superman films culled from the second season of the show. I don't know of anyone who has seen any of them, but we know they exist, or existed.
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This cast, representing Ellen Sandweiss, as she appeared in THE EVIL DEAD (1981):
(https://i.imgur.com/nd3s5qF.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/mEYvgJn.jpg)
If life masks weren't freaky enough, now you just showed an even more freaky Evil Dead one, Jeff! The scarring you gave me from just seeing normal life masks just opened.
Okie
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If nothing else, she's got those eyes, Okie. :o
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If nothing else, she's got those eyes, Okie. :o
That's a "she"! Good night!!! Okie
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Another Dick Smith cast of Linda Blair from THE EXORCIST.
This was the makeup design for which the "rotating, 360º head" scene was used, and from which the FX head was made.
(https://i.imgur.com/jMkh8o8.jpg)
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Very spooky Blair mask, Jeff! That slight smile is hiding a projectile green nougat. Creepy! Okie
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Very spooky Blair mask, Jeff! That slight smile is hiding a projectile green nougat. Creepy! Okie
Either that or her Gene Simmons-like tongue that she showed off, later in the flick. ;D :P
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Either that or her Gene Simmons-like tongue that she showed off, later in the flick. ;D :P
I think you are right, Jeff! Okie