Make-up artist, Richard A. Baker began his life on December 8, 1950. Born in Binghamton, New York, he was the son of a bank teller and a professional artist. Mother, Doris, and father, Ralph relocated to Covina, California when young Richard was less than a year old.

From sources on Wikipedia, Baker began constructing artificial limbs in his kitchen when he was just a teenager. He began working with household materials like pie-dough, using it to form masks on his own face. He also used Kleenex and mortician’s wax to make rudimentary, but convincing masks and wounds. Baker even constructed a gorilla mask so real, it frightened the neighborhood kids at Halloween. This led to Baker meeting makeup artist, Bob Burns. Known for his work on It Conquered the World and Invasion of the Saucer Men, Burns and Baker became friends.

Through his friendship with Burns, Baker honed his skill.

In the summer of 1971, Baker got a job with filmmaker, John Landis, working on Landis’ first film, Schlock. It was the story of a prehistoric ape man who emerges from a cave to terrorize Southern California. The film would not win any critical acclaim but it caught the attention of talk show host, Johnny Carson, who invited Landis to talk about the film on his show. The recognition would bring Baker other jobs.

In 1973, Baker got his first professional job on the film, The Exorcist. Baker served as an assistant to prosthetic makeup effects veteran, Dick Smith. Director, Larry Cohen, hired Baker to work on his film, It’s Alive and, in 1974, Baker created a mutant infant for the film. The baby was made from aluminum wire and featured adjustable eyes and articulated limbs. Baker made a full-head mask for close-up shots in the film. As the baby was the star of the film, it was important for it to look as realistic as possible. Elaine Parkyn, Baker’s then-girlfriend, would wear the mask and special gloves.

Baker worked with Landis again, this time on the horror classic, An American Werewolf in London (1981). In the film’s most famous scene, the transformation, Baker and Landis agreed on doing everything in one shot. This involved the use of prosthetics and short takes. The face, hands, and back distensions were done with what Baker referred to as “Change-O” prosthetics. They contained internal mechanisms which would cause the appendage to elongate and distort. They were made with a urethane elastomer, a stronger, more durable sort of plastic.

For the street scene, the concept for the werewolf was a quadruped instead of a biped like Lon Cheney in The Wolfman. Baker designed a wolf suit for a puppet on a motorized board. While it might sound simple, the creation was quite complicated. Baker based the look on his own dog, Bosco, with a large mane around its face. The wolf in the film had a very pronounced look on its face, one made to engender a moment of real fear in the audience.

Baker won the first Academy Award in the category of Best Makeup for An American Werewolf in London.

Baker would have a very prolific career after his work on Its Alive. He would work as a makeup creator on over forty films including The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, King Kong, Squirm, The Fury, The Howling, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Starman, Harry and the Hendersons, Men in Black, The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, The Ring, X-Men the Last Stand, Maleficent, and Rings. He would even serve on the second unit makeup team for Star Wars and be an uncredited artist on The Empire Strikes Back.

Because of his work on An American Werewolf in London and The Howling, Baker was brought onto the set of the music video, Thriller, and asked to create the cat-like makeup for Michael Jackson. Having been a fan of Baker’s work, Jackson asked to have the artist work on his video. The popstar and the makeup artist became friends and worked together again for Captain EO. Jackson even dedicated the song, Threatened, to Baker.

1987 saw Baker working on the television show, Beauty and the Beast starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Pearlman. For this assignment, Baker was told “…it has to be a monster but it has to be attractive to women.” Because of a cat’s natural attractiveness, Baker made the character of Vincent more feline. To make certain the show had the right person to endure the makeup application and to “get the right face,” Baker was involved in the casting. As it would happen, Pearlman was allergic to the biggest majority of the makeup Baker used. This caused the artist to rise to the challenge and invent new ways to transform the actor.

In 1988, he won an Academy Award for Harry and the Hendersons. 1995 would see him awarded for Ed Wood. The Nutty Professor would be his achievement in 1997, along with a Saturn Award. He would go on to win an Academy Award for Men in Black (1998), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2001), and The Wolfman (2011) This film would win a Saturn Award the same year. Baker would win BAFTA Awards for Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, The Nutty Professor, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which also won a Saturn Award). The number of wins in this category have given Baker the record in his field.

Since retiring in 2015, Baker has worked on his own passion projects like doing busts of various movie and comic-book characters.

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