Rick Baker Research

   In a pop culture world bursting with science fiction and fantasy, theres no special effects makeup artist more respected, admired than Rick Baker. From humble beginnings cooking up monster masks in his mother's kitchen, Baker's talent and enthusiasm to make-up and special effects catapulted him from his first Hollywood job as a makeup assistant on "The Exorcist" (1973) to supervising the creation of a bevy of cantina aliens in "Star Wars" (1977) and creating the scariest post-modern wolfman in "An American Werewolf in London" (1981). Thanks in part to his work on Michael Jackson's 1983 music video "Thriller," in which he turned the pop star and his backup performers into the dancing undead. He soon found himself creating creatures for "Harry and the Hendersons" (1987), "Men in Black" (1997) and Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" (2001). Baker's career then went into a comedic direction with his work with comedian Eddie Murphy, who he transformed into a bevy of characters, including the portly Sherman Klump in "The Nutty Professor," (1996) and its sequel.

   Baker announced his retirement on May 28, 2015: "First of all, the CG stuff definitely took away the animatronics part of what I do. It's also starting to take away the makeup part. The time is right, I am 64 years old, and the business is crazy right now. I like to do things right, and they wanted cheap and fast. That is not what I want to do, so I just decided it is basically time to get out. I would consider designing and consulting on something, but I don’t think I will have a huge working studio anymore.”