Film Screening with Michael WESTMORE: Raging Bull

Raging Bull was not the first time Westmore had worked with Martin Scorsese or Robert De Niro – he had met both of them on Scorsese’s 1977 film New York, New York. Raging Bull is the biographical story of boxer Jake LaMotta. To make De Niro look like LaMotta at different stages in his life, Westmore designed nose prosthetics, which he later had to redesign to fit De Niro, who famously gained 60 pounds during the 18 month long shoot. Westmore also created sophisticated in-camera special effects for the film’s realistic fight scenes. Westmore’s accomplishments on Raging Bull were used by the Makeup Guild to successfully petition the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences to reward their craft with a makeup specific award the following year.

Raging Bull (1980)

Screening format: Blu-Ray (2 Hours – 9 Minutes)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writers: Jake LaMotta, Joseph Carter

Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci

Make-up Supervisor: Michael Westmore (Oscar®-Nominated)

Michael Westmore, Make-up Artist

Michael Westmore is a scion of the famed Westmore make-up dynasty, which dates back to Hollywood’s golden age. Starting in 1917, virtually every major studio’s make-up department was supervised by a member of the Westmore family. Michael has been the recipient of a record forty-two Emmy nominations, and has been presented with nine statuettes. The Motion Picture Academy has honored him with four nominations, and he won an Oscar® in 1986 for Mask. While supervising make-up on Star Trek, he turned his attention to writing articles and books on cosmetics and their application.