History of Ben Nye – Film Makeup Artist

Hello again!

So it’s looking like my throwback Thursday posts were going become more of a flashback Friday, but that didn’t happen (life got in the way) so it’s just just Sunday post because I can.

Going for something a little bit different this week, and hopefully a little shorter than last week (but who knows how honest a statement that is). I’m going to take you back through the career of Ben Nye.

If you’re thinking “WHO?” Don’t worry yourself, he’s known mostly to makeup artists. But he’s a pretty big deal in the makeup world, especially in the film industry.

I’ve had a smidge bit of experience with Ben Nye products over my years as a makeup artist, mostly with special effects products like bloods, spirit gum, latex etc, but I’ve always had a Ben Nye concealer palette and Final Seal in my kit.

Recently I’ve started working at Scotty’s Makeup and Beauty, and we stock Ben Nye products there. This isn’t a post recommending you buy stuff, I swear never to be that person. I’ve just been sticking my fingers in every single product we have and colour swatching everything, to familiarize myself with the brand, and then I thought it would be a good way to do a throwback post, especially now I have nearly the entire range to photograph and what so.

Alrighty, so Ben Nye.

Benjamin Emmet “Ben” Nye was a professional makeup artist who greatly influenced makeup in the film and television industry in particular.

Ben was born on January 12, 1907 to parents Charles and Josephine Nye in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.  His family moved to Omaha where he and his sister Harriet and brother Ray finished high school. It was while Ben was in high school that he was introduced to makeup, and he started doing makeup for the school plays.

At his fathers instance, Ben went on to study Geography at the University of Nebraska.  After completing one year of study, his professor saw his passion lay elsewhere and advised him to study the arts instead, so, naturally, he moved to Los Angeles.

Whilst in LA, his uncle got him a job working at Fox Studios in the music department copying sheet music for films. He worked in this position for three years and admitted it was very boring. But the boring work paid off, and through the connections he made during these three years at Fox, he managed to attain an apprenticeship in the makeup department working under Montague “Monte” Westmore.

Monte Westmore applying facial hair to Carroll Nye (coincidentally Ben’s brother)

Now I’m just going to go a little of track for a second and give you a little bit of info about Monte Westmore. The Westmore Family are very well known in Hollywood. Monte is the eldest of six sons to George Westmore, who was a hairdresser turned makeup artist who became very prominent in Hollywood, and opened the first film makeup department in 1917. All his sons went into the film makeup business, as did Monte’s son Michael Westmore who is famously known for his makeup in the Star Trek productions. Michaels daughter McKenzie Westmore is an actress who is best known for her performance in the soap opera “Passions”. McKenzie now is the host on the Syfy channels “Face Off’ which is a reality television series where special effects makeup artist compete to win $100,000. So yeah, the Westmore’s are a big deal in Hollywood, and have been since the dawn of the film age so it seems! Maybe I’ll do a post about them…

Anyway, back to Ben. Working under Westmore he gained a lot of experience in makeup for film. In 1937 he was signed on his first “A List” film “In Old Chicago” starring Tyrone Power and Alice Faye. Then in 1939 he was signed on to work on the film “Jesse James,” again starring Power. It was on this film where Nye was put in charge of creating the makeup designs for all the characters,  and experience would deem crucial later in his career. He had a keen eye for realism, and in the final scene of this movie, viewers can see Power with facial hair, which was made of real human hair and applied by Nye himself. He gained a lot of respect for this particular makeup in this film.

Vivienne Lee and Hattie McDaniel is “Gone With The Wind”

Again in 1939, Nye received another big break. Whether he knew it at the time or not, who knows, but 76 years later we definitely consider it enormous. He was hired to work closely along side Monte Westmore in “Gone With The Wind” starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel. Nye was assigned as the makeup artist for Howard, de Havilland and McDaniel, but Ben Nye looked after Leigh’s makeup on set. At this time, there was no makeup to match the skin tone of African-Americans, and to do the makeup on McDaniel, Nye had to make his own products virtually on the spot to create the right makeup colour for her. For this he used different shadows and pigments. During the filming of “Gone With The Wind”, Nye would work in the morning to apply to main makeup, nap in the afternoon and work through the night, especially during filming of the “Burning Of Atlanta” in which he had to make hundreds of actors dirty, bruised etc.

It was after the production of “Gone With The Wind” that Nye decided to sink his hands into formulating some of his products and created a makeup palette specifically to match the skin tone of African Americans.

Over the next few years Nye worked as a freelance makeup artist and went between Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers Studios. In 1941 Nye went back to Fox Studios and became the head of the makeup department. He was aged 37. This job required him to breakdown scripts, budgets, staff, design etc, and would often require him to supervise 6-8 films at once.   Back at Fox, he also started running his own apprenticeship program which quickly became known as one of the best makeup apprenticeships in the world.

1949 through to 1961 was the highlight of Nye’s career in the film industry. In 1949, he worked on a film starring Madeleine Carroll. In this film, Carroll was 43 but had to be 70 years old in some scenes. This was the first of Nye’s many creative and successful prosthetics which he became so widely known for.  His most impressive piece of work (in my opinion) was in the 1950 filn “The Mudlark” which is about the reign of Queen Victoria and starred Irene Dunn, who looked nothing like Queen Victoria whatsoever. Nye made a full face cast (impression of the actors face) and then created a one piece foam latex appliance which was so supple that it allowed complete facial movement to Dunn.  Luckily for Nye, this was one of the films in which he got to apply the makeup, as he was often overseeing so many projects at once. The director of “The Mudlark” agreed to shoot all the close up scenes of Dunn first thing after the makeup was applied so it would always look it’s best on screen.

Again in 1954, Nye did another full transformation into a historical figure in the film “Desiree” starring Marlon Brando, who Nye convincingly made to look like Napoleon Bonaparte. Then in 1955 he was given yet another historical character in the 1955 film “Prince of Playes” which incorporated a scene of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Nye knocked back many actors for this role (I assume because of this it was a non speaking role, I haven’t actually seen this film). Instead he chose a dancer he saw on a sound stage who had the right features. The prosthetics for this piece included a prosthetic chin, nose and cheeks. It also included a bald cap, wig and facial hair. It still remains one of the likenesses to Lincoln that has ever been created. Fast forwarding to 1961, he designed an incredible witch prosthetic piece for Patricia Medina in “Snow White and The Three Stooges”.

This next bit is actually one of my favorite things I found out about Ben Nye. He was the makeup artist on the 1956 film “The King and I” starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. Nye created a Body Bronzing Tint that he used on Brynner, who then ended up using this product every time he performed this role (he performed as the King over 5,000 times in his career on stage, so that’s a LOT of tanner). This product is actually still available today, and is (in my opinion) a must have in the kit of a makeup artist as it instantly tans the skin and doesn’t smudge, so it’s awesome for fixing up botchy tans or for photo shoots.

Yule Brynner in “The King and I” and Ben Nye’s “Body Bronzing Tint” as it is today

Nye adjusting the mask of “The Fly”

Nye also did the makeup for a film in 1958 called “The Fly” about a half man/half fly. He created a pretty amazing piece using foam latex stuck onto a piece of tight fitting fabric, added hair and stuck turkey feathers in the mouth of the actor which were the only mobile part of the face. It hardly features in the movie thought, because it was thought to be too scary.

After supervising over 500 feature films in his career, Nye retired in 1967. The Fox Studios makeup department closed in 1970. In the same year, Nye opened up Ben Nye Cosmetics and named his son Dana as CEO, and he still is today. Nye’s other son, Ben Nye Jr. also works as a makeup artist in films, and has been the personal makeup artist for Brendon Fraser from time to time.

Ben Nye passed away on February 9, 1986 in Santa Monica, California.

Other notable films Nye worked on include:

• Gentleman Prefer Blondes, starring Marilyn Monroe (1953)
• The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews (1965)
• South Pacific (1958)
• Carousel (1956)
• The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
• Planet of the Apes (1968)

Ben Nye certainly left his impression on makeup artists, especially as it’s often some of the first products makeup artists are introduced to in their kits. Our kits now would be incomplete if it had not been for his creation of colours for Africans, Hispanics and Asians.

In the last few years there has been an enormous increase in the sales of Ben Nye products, thanks to Kim Kardashian’s makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic who uses Ben Nye’s “Banana Powder” to create the famous contoured look so rocked by Kimmy K.

Other notable products makeup artists are commonly familiar with are:

• Ben Nye Matte HD Foundation Palette
• Ben Nye Liquid Latex
• Ben Nye Stage Blood
• Ben Nye Bruise Wheel
• Ben Nye Spirit Gum

And my favorite of his lipsticks. Appropriately there is a lipstick that Marilyn wore in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” now named “Marilyn Red” and a natural toned lipstick named “Doe-A-Dear”. I wanted to get it the minute I saw it just because of the name!.

So there you have the story of Ben Nye. Pretty different as he’s more a film guy than a beauty guy, but interesting and so creative and a huge influence on the makeup world none the less!

Next weeks post may not happen, so I’ll definitely get some good material together for the following week. Who would you like to hear about or what history of makeup would you like to know about next?

Marilyn Red, Blushable and Doe-a-Dear

Thanks for reading, as always please share the love.

See you soon!

Charlotte