The Westmores

After researching the Westmores I'm suprised to see how many films they were involved in and find it fasinating that the talent was carried on through generations!

GEORGE WESTMORE
It all began with george westmore, a englishman who pursuede his career as a hairdresser after the  Second Boer War. At age 38 he decided to retire (which indicated a successful career), he moved to LA when it came to his attention that actors did their own make up and he didnt like the way they did it! In 1917 george founded the first make up department at selig studio.
George and his wife Ava went on to have 19 children but unfourtunatly only 7 survived.
after his wife died he went on to have one more child with his second wife anita.
All 6 of his sons whom he had with ava went on to become make up artists.

1921 The Nut (makeup artist)
1921 The Education of Elizabeth (makeup artist)
1921 The Sheik (makeup artist - uncredited) The film that shot Rudolph Valentino to fame.
1921 The Three Musketeers (makeup artist - uncredited)
1922 Robin Hood (makeup artist - uncredited)
1922 Smilin' Through (makeup artist)

1924 Secrets (makeup artist)
1924 The Goldfish (makeup and hair)
1924 The Thief of Bagdad (makeup artist - uncredited)
1925 Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (makeup artist - uncredited)
1925 Don Q Son of Zorro (makeup artist - uncredited)
1926 The Black Pirate (makeup artist - uncredited)
1930Romance (makeup and hair - undredited)

1923 Black Oxen (wigs - uncredited)

MONTE WESTMORE
Montague westmore was the eldest of the 6 brothers, born in england like his father. In 1921 Monte went to work with his father on the set of the sheik. Monte got his big break when he convinced Rudolph Valentino to let him do his makeup. He was Valentino's makeup artist untill the actors death in 1926. From then on monte worked on great films such as Intermezzo and Gone with the wind.
Monte went on to have 3 sons, Michael , Monty and Marvin.
Each lead a successful career of their own.
Michael won an academy award for makeup from the film mask in 1985 and 9 emmys.
Monty was nominated for an emmy and academt award
and Marvin was the founder and CEO of the goerge westmore research library and museum.


FILMS WORKED ON

1922 Blood and Sand (makeup artist - uncredited) (Valentino was billed as 'Rodolph')
1927 The King of Kings (makeup supervisor)
1929 Spite Marriage (makeup artist - uncredited)
1929 The Girl from Mexico (makeup artist)
1932 Forbidden (makeup artist - uncredited)
1934 Four Frightened People (makeup artist - uncredited)
1935 The Crusades (makeup artist - uncredited)
1939 Intermezzo AKA Escape to Happiness (makeup artist - uncredited)
1939 Gone with the Wind (hair stylist - uncredited, makeup artist - uncredited)
1940 Rebecca (makeup artist - uncredited)


 PERCIVAL WESTMORE
( twin of ernest westmore)

In the 1930's the westmores were tring to launch a beauty salon but found that they had ran out of money. Kay francis gave them a blank cheque to help with the project. In 1935 The house of westmore beauty salon opened on sunset boulevard.  The salon had its own range of beauty products and were even giving away copys of 'Perc westmore's make-up guide'.

When perc became the head of warner brothers make-up department he came up with ideas ahead of his time. For example he produced a chart that displayed 35 shades of blonde, explaining that different hair colours required different make-up. Perc even had involment in the makeup for the film 'The private lifes of Elizabeth and Essex' Where he had to make drastic changes to bette davis's appearance. Such as shaving her hair line a few inches back.

List of films worked on- http://iwanttobeamakeupartist.com/films-that-percival-westmore-worked-on.html



ERNEST WESTMORE

(Twin of Percival)

Many say that Ernest was the most talented of all the westmore brothers.He worked for The Warner Brothers, RKO ,Eagle lion studios and was director of makeup for more than 50 films.
Ernest also had his own tv show 'the Ern Westmore show'.
Unfortunatly Ernest alcoholism lost him his job with the Warner brothers. He went on to have 2 children and one of his grandchildren becane art director at universal studios.




List of films worked on- http://iwanttobeamakeupartist.com/films-that-ernest-westmore-worked-on.html


WALTER WESTMORE

 Walter 'wally' Westmore's first film was the 1931 classic Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Wally was the Special Effects Makeup Artist who transformed Fredric March from Dr. Jekyll to Mr Hyde. Hollywood had never seen anything like it, he went on to work on more than 300 films, mostly for Paramount.



complete list of wallys films- http://iwanttobeamakeupartist.com/films-that-walter-westmore-worked-on.html


Frank westmore-

Frank Westmore was the youngest brother. He was the second Westmore son to be born in America.
Frank worked at Paramount Pictures as an apprentice to his older brother, Wally.
He worked on many films, including Farewell, My Lovely and The Ten Commandments.
Frank also did a lot of TV work, including The Munsters, Planet of the Apes, Bonanza, Hart to Hart and Kung Fu.
 




george westmore pic http://westmoremuseum.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/georgecrop.jpg?w=227&h=300
MOnte westmore SNR-
http://marvingwestmore.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/monteoliviadehavillandqx51.jpg?w=276
perc-
http://collections.oscars.org/link/papers/81/
ernest image-
http://iwanttobeamakeupartist.com/ernest-ern-westmore.html
Frank image- http://acertaincinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/shirley-maclaine-makeup-artist-frank-westmore-my-geisha.jpg