Dick Smith’s body of work is certainly sorcery of the highest level. From subtle character enhancement of an actor to full-blown fantastic grotesquerie, his creations haunt the cinema and have inspired those in the art who follow him to their own superb creations.
Smith’s brilliance was revealed to me as a child through featured articles in FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND and later CINEFANTASTIQUE so that I knew any film graced by his talents would present something magical. His wizardry at aging people is stunning, from such extremes as Dustin Hoffman in LITTLE BIG MAN and Jonathan Frid in HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS to the more subtle efforts on Marlon Brando as THE GODFATHER and Max Von Sydow’s Father Merrin in THE EXORCIST. His penchant for the surreal was well served in GHOST STORY (pictured above) and THE SENTINEL, two potently creepy supernatural tales.
An excellent career recap can be found on AIN’T IT COOL NEWS by Quint.
Hail to thee, Dick Smith, a true magus of makeup!
—Magus Peter H. Gilmore