NYE Ben
Benjamin Emmet Nye.
Date of death : February 9, 1986, Santa Monica, California.
Profession head make-up artist for the Hollywood films.
Renowned makeup artist for the Hollywood film industry for over four decades, from the 1930s to the early
He worked for such films as "Gone with the Wind" (1939), "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947), "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953), "The King and I" (1956), "The Fly" (1958) and "Planet of the Apes" (1968).
Story
Ben and his family moved to Omaha where he, his brother and sister, attended high school.
At his father's urging, Ben studied geology at the University of Nebraska. However, after his freshman year, his professor suggested that he pursue art instead.
Ben moved to Los Angeles in 1926 where he landed a job as a commercial artist for a department store.
He received valuable experience, but lost his job a few years later when the Great Depression struck.
Luckily, Ben's uncle, a musician in the Fox Films orchestra, got him a
job copying sheet music. Ben thought it a boring job, but quickly made
many friends on the Fox lot.
In 1934, he was granted a coveted apprenticeship in the Makeup Department and studied under great makeup artist Monte Westmore. He felt genuinely fortunate to have such a good teacher.
In 1937 he passed his Journeyman test and spent a year at Fox working on B movies. Those were shot in about 2 weeks and he had plenty of time to practice his craft.
In 1938, he was assigned to director Henry King's "In Old Chicago". King was known to be tough on his crew, especially the make-up people. Ben earned the respect of this director with both his creative abilities and meticulous daily preparation.
He joined Mr Westmore as his assistant in "Gone
with the Wind". Requested by actor Thomas Mitchell who played matriarch
Gerlad O'Hara, Ben also took charge of principals including Olivia De
Havilland, Leslie Howard and Hattie McDaniel. While attending Miss
McDaniel (Scarlet''s nanny) Ben realized there were no make up
shades for ethnic performers.
He had to carefully blend colors so she would not appeared red or
"pasty". Some 20 years later, he would "fix" the problem by developing
foundation shades for ethnic skin tones.
After this movie, David O'Selznick, hired him as Makeup Director on his
2 next films : Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca" starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier, and "Intermezzo" Ingrid Bergman's American film debut.
For the next four years, Ben freelanced between Warner Brothers (), Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox.
In 1944, studio mogul, Darryl Zanuck, asked Ben to take over the Fox Makeup Department. Ben was ready for the challenge. He assumed respnsabilities just as World War II was ending and film production went into high gear. He reorganized the department and worked hard to build a team. Audiences flocked to theaters and Fox put big money behind westerns, romances, war dramas and musicals that challenged Ben's creativity.
He worked with hunddred of notable actors including James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Lana Turner, Cary Grant, Richard Burton, Joanne Woodward and Elvis Presley.
While at Fox, he supervised over 500 feature films and television productions.
He trained dozen of artists in one of the finest apprenticeship programs in Hollywood. It was because of Ben's love of the craft that he willingly and generously shared his makeup techniques with the next generation of artists.
Nye officially retired in 1967 and setting his sights on making his cosmetics available to the entertainment industry, he created the Ben Nye Makeup Company, which has a distinguished reputation internationally.
Nye, Sr. left his son
Dana () in charge of the company as CEO. Nye's son, Ben, Jr., also works in
the film makeup industry.
Link with Marilyn
His name appeared in many of the credits of the movies Marilyn shot for the Fox.