Makeup Artist Freeborn Dies

Stuart Freeborn, whose legacy as a movie makeup artist includes Yoda’s and Chewbacca’s looks in Star Wars, has died at the age of 98.

Freeborn’s six-decade career in film began in the 1930s, working with director Alexander Korda. In David Lean’s 1948 version of Oliver Twist he transformed Alec Guinness into Fagin.

Later he contributed to Peter Sellers’ portayal of multiple characters in Stanley Kubrick’s Doctor Strangelove, and designed the apes for 2001‘s “Dawn of Man” sequence.

He also created Jabba the Hutt for Star Wars.

One thought on “Makeup Artist Freeborn Dies

  1. Stuart was a tremendously talented, friendly, and sweet man. When I met him in the late ’70s, working on the “Star Wars” movies, he was in his 60s and had been working in movies for over 40 years. He could well have been haughty and full of himself — he’d worked on some great films with top actors and directors — but he was always available for a chat or to answer questions. He would say that his inspiration for Yoda’s face was Albert Einstein but seeing Stuart next to Yoda, there was no question as to whose face it truly was.

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