Biografia

13 aprile 1912 · Jacksonville, Florida, Stati Uniti

27 luglio 2007 · Pacific Palisades, California, Stati Uniti (imprecisato)

William Julian Tuttle

He was the very first makeup artist to ever receive an Oscar. He earned an honorary award for his work on Le 7 facce del Dr. Lao (1964). Sixteen years later, Rick Baker received the first award in the category of Best Makeup for Un lupo mannaro americano a Londra (1981).

Survived by his wife of 40 years and daughter (Teresa); a son, John, predeceased him.

Older brother of Thomas Tuttle.

It was Tuttle's idea of fastening the monster's head to his neck with a zipper in the film Young Frankenstein, as Mel Brooks did not want to use the iconic bolts and have copyright issues with the original Frankenstein.

Mel Brooks called Tuttle a master.

The crew [of I vampiri di Praga (1935)] and I didn't like to work for director Tod Browning. We would try to escape being assigned to one of his productions because he would overwork us until we were ready to drop from exhaustion...he was ruthless. He was determined to get everything he could on film. If the crew didn't do something right, Browning would grumble: 'Mr. Chaney would have done it better.' He was hard to please. I remember he gave the special effects men a hard time because they weren't working the mechanical bats properly. Though he didn't drive his actors as hard, he gave Lionel Barrymore a difficult time during a scene. Lugosi's performance, however, satisfied Browning.