On Wednesday, June 17, 2009, AMPAS hosted “A Tribute to Dick Smith: the Godfather of Special Makeup Effects.”  A quick look around the audience spoke to what was to be an amazing event.  In the audience was a veritable who’s who of makeup artists drawn from all over the globe.

The evening began with the introduction of six time academy award winning Makeup Artist Rick Baker who was was the Emcee for the evening.  Clearly overwhelmed by the outpouring of love for his mentor, he shared his own personal story about how he came to know and love Dick Smith.  We learned some history about Dick and his early years in television.  He also shared some stories how he worked on some of what most makeup artists would classify as seminal makeup films. He introduced Dick Smith to the audience and Dick received a standing ovation.

Next, we got to see some film clips from Dick’s work on “Alice in Wonderland“, “Mark Twain Tonight“, and a old show Rick Baker had classified as a “rip off of outer limits” called “Way Out” and a specific episode called “Soft Focus”.

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Barry Morse as Peter Pell Ep. 13 of Way Out, "Soft Focus"

Then the first panel came out to talk about Dick Smith consisting of  Linda Blair and Hal Holbrook. Linda had some amazing words to say about his talent and how if there were more people in the world like him, the world would be a better place.  Again the audience responded to the words with applause, agreeing with that assessment.  Hal Holbrook took a few minutes to describe working with Dick on Mark Twain Tonight and shared some funny revelations.

We were then treated to a dose of some of Dick’s most famous work in “The Excorcist“.

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Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil in "The Exorcist"

For the second panel, Rick introduced makeup artist Andrew Clement, visual effects artist John Rosengrant and Oscar-nominated visual effects artist Shane Mahan to the stage.

More clips were then shown from “The Hunger” and probably the best clip of the entire evening was watching Dick advise Dustin Hoffman behind the scenes on how to get the most out of his old age makeup in “Little Big Man”

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Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb from "Little Big Man"

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David Bowie as John from "The Hunger"

The next Panel was made up of Oscar-winning visual effects artist Tom Woodruff, Jr., Oscar-nominated visual effects artist Alec Gillis, Oscar-winning makeup artist Mike Elizalde and Oscar- nominated makeup artist Carl Fullerton.  They discussed Dick’s work on “Altered states” and “The Hunger“.  Then a special greeting from halfway across the globe.  In a pre-recorded video, Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Guillermo del Toro had some very kind words about how they all were inspired directly or indirectly by Dick Smith.  To which Guillermo (ever the cunning linguist) said “we are all here because we are Dick’s Spawn”.

Next up was Oscar-nominated makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji, Oscar-winning makeup artist Greg Cannom and Oscar-winning makeup artist Kevin Haney.  Kazu took the opportunity to discuss what Dick Smith meant to him and how he had touched his life.  Rick Agreed and Greg  Cannom insisted that he would not be where he was today without Dick Smith.

Following the presentation the entire honored guest list made their way to the stage for a photo. (High Rez version is coming soon)

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Photo Credit: Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S

ROW 1: (seated on ground) Frederic Laine, Arjen Tuiten, Morten Jacobsen and Ivan Poharnok.
ROW 2: Mike Elizalde, Howard Berger, Tom Woodruff, Jr., Shane Mahan, John Rosengrant, Leonard Engelman, Jill Rockow, Dick Smith, Rick Baker, Kazuhiro Tsuji, Kevin Haney, Richie Alonzo, Carl Fullerton, Greg Cannom and Alec Gillis.
ROW 3: Mitch Devane, Michael Key, Robert Ryan, Michael Westmore, Susan Cabral-Ebert, Tommy Cole, Jose Manuel Meneses, Robert Short, Steve Laporte, Jamie Kelman, Peter Montagna, Mike Smithson, Bill Sturgeon and Roland Blancaflor.
ROW 4: Lee Romaire, Lynda Gurasich, Allan Apone, Cherie Minns, Melanie Gerbaux Lane, Maurice Stein, Kenny Myers, Jay Wejebe, Montse Ribe, David Marti, Stephen Prouty, Doug Drexler, Stephen Dupuis, Fred Blau, Doug Beswick and James Belohovek.