Paul Engelen
☼ Born on 30 December 1949, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK
† Died on 3 December 2024, in West Sussex, England, UK
Biography
Twice Emmy Award-winning, as well as Oscar and BAFTA-nominated makeup artist Paul Engelen was the youngest of four siblings, born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. He began work as a graphic design student following studies at Twickenham Art College. A chance meeting at Shepperton Studios with veteran make-up artist Harry Frampton ignited his passion for working on motion picture make-up design. Apprenticed as an assistant to Tom Smith in the late 60s and early 70s, Engelen worked his way up to chief make-up designer on the adventure film Gold (1974), starring Roger Moore. This was the first of eleven collaborations with Moore, which famously included a trio of James Bond thrillers: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979). For the first of these, he created the third nipple for Bond villain Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). For the second, he crafted villain Karl Stromberg's (Curd Jürgens) webbed fingers. For the third, he helped design the famous metal teeth of 'Jaws' (Richard Kiel). Engelen's later work on the Bond franchise included Die Another Day (2002) (for which he fashioned the disfigured, diamond-studded facial appearance of North Korean antagonist Zao) and, both, Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008) (as make-up supervisor tasked with creating a suitably rugged look for Daniel Craig).
Highlights of Engelen's distinguished career encompassed working with Blake Edwards on two of the Pink Panther movies, with St
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even Spielberg on Empire of the Sun (1987), with Ridley Scott on Gladiator (2000) and Robin Hood (2010), with Anthony Minghella on Cold Mountain (2003) and with Wolfgang Petersen on Troy (2004). In tandem with creature designer and special effects prosthetics wizard Nick Dudman, Engelen conceived the iconic black and red horned visage of Sith villain Dath Maul for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). He received an Oscar nomination for his work on the creature (played by Robert De Niro) in Frankenstein (1994), deciding upon a different look from that of Boris Karloff in the original film version. Engelen later said "Kenneth Branagh was very supportive of the evolution as was De Niro, although the six hours he spent in the chair was a monstrous demand to make of him."
He earned six Primetime Emmy nominations (winning twice in 2012 and 2013) for his work on seasons one to three of HBO's epic series Game of Thrones (2011), helping to bring a more visceral realism to such crucial set pieces as the 'red wedding'.
Paul Engelen died on November 3 of cancer at his home in West Sussex, England, aged 75.
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