The Drex Files: Michael Westmore
2 min readDoug Drexler shared his memories of working with Michael Westmore, who transformed the actors into the characters (human and alien) on Star Trek from The Next Generation through Enterprise.
In addition, Drexler takes fans inside Westmore’s house, in a video seen here, where fans can see Westmore’s many awards on his mantel, including nine Emmys and one Oscar.
Drexler found working with Westmore to be “sheer fun. He always wears a smile, and is just a delight. He is a dear, dear man. If you know anything about the Westmores of Hollywood, you know that the family practically invented the movie makeup game.”
The Westmore family’s tenure in Hollywood dates back to 1917, and Michael Westmore’s children are the fourth generation to carry on the Hollywood tradition. A book about the family, The Westmores of Hollywood, written by his uncle, Frank Westmore, chronicles the Westmore family’s Hollywood tenure. Michael Westmore’s own career began on Flower Drum Song (1961) where he worked as an apprentice.
Westmore shared a story with Drexler about his uncle, Bud, about a time when Bud was apprenticing on a Tarzan movie. “Cheetah the chimp was played by a male ape,” said Drexler. “Bud’s job was to take a wet sponge and burnt cork, and use it to black out the chimp’s ‘water works’ so that they would not show up on the big screen. After about a week of that, whenever Bud walked on stage, Cheetah would scamper over excitedly, take the cork and sponge out of Bud’s pocket and hand it to him.”
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