Stuart Freeborn

Stuart Freeborn (born 5 September 1914, in London, England) is a British motion picture make-up artist. He has been referred to as the grandfather of modern make-up design and is perhaps best known for his work on the original Star Wars trilogy

His earliest work in the film industry was designing the hair and make-up worn by Alec Guiness as Fagin in Oliver Twist. Freeborn's most famous work is creating the make-up for all of the characters in the Star Wars trilogy, including Chewbacca and Yoda, he supposedly based Yoda on his own face and that of Albert Einstein. He supervised the design of the original Jabba the Hutt puppet used in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, which required room for up to three puppeters to operate at the same time.

Freeborn was also the make-up artist on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, where he created the humans/apes for the "Dawn of Man" sequence. He worked on Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, handling Peter Sellers' multiple lead roles. He also worked with Sellers in several other films, including Heavens Above!, Mr. Topaze, and Soft Beds, Hard Battles and he was the make-up visual supervisor in the Superman films.

His wife Kay assisted her husband on several occasions; their son Graham was also a prolific make-up artist before his death in 1986.

In the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace DVD, in one of the web documentaries, he was awarded a statue by the team at Lucasfilm.

External links

• Stuart Freeborn at the Internet Movie Database
• An article looking at Stuart's work on the creatures and makeup of the Star Wars Trilogy