Jack Pierce - Glendale, CA - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

The name Jack Pierce may not be a household word, even among movie buffs. But in the world of Hollywood makeup artists, his name is revered. An emigrant from Athens, Greece, Jack Pierce (real name: Janus Piccoula) tried his hand at playing baseball and acting in silent films before settling into the makeup department at Universal Studios, eventually becoming the head of that department. In the early 1930s, Universal Studios stood in the shadow of Hollywood giant MGM and was mostly making “B” movies.

In 1931, Universal Studios embarked on making a movie version of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” The now iconic monster was largely the creation of Jack Pierce who would go on to create the makeup for the monsters of such horror classics as “The Mummy” and “The Wolf Man” along with their various sequels. Pierce had earned the nickname ‘the monster maker.’

After 20+ years as the master makeup artist at Universal Studios, Jack Pierce was summarily fired, ostensibly because he refused to adopt more modern techniques which would require less time. Makeup for all of the above-mentioned movie monsters would require 4 to 6 or even more hours to put on and in most cases, several hours to remove. Consummate professional that he was, Pierce informed Universal that the quality of their makeup would suffer without him, to which a Universal executive supposedly replied, “So the makeup isn’t perfect - people are still buying tickets.”

Pierce went on to work on several low-budget horror movies for different studios and eventually landed a steady job in television working on the “Mr. Ed” show. In 2003, the U.S. postal service issued a set of stamps honoring American movie making. One of the stamps dedicated to makeup, showed Jack Pierce putting the finishing touches on the Frankenstein monster played by actor Boris Karloff.
(Sources: wikipedia.org, ascmag.com.)

Description: Jack Pierce is laid to rest in the Whispering Pines section of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA. Date of birth: 05/05/1889 Date of death: 07/19/1968 Area of notoriety: Entertainment Marker Type: Horizontal Marker Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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