Photograph, Maurice Seiderman applying Old-Age Makeup to Orson Welles During Production of Citizen Kane, 1940
Description
Head of the RKO makeup department from 1944-1947, Maurice Seiderman is renowned for the innovative and elaborate techniques he used in creating Orson Welles’s old-age makeup for Citizen Kane. Seiderman sculpted the prosthetic nose, chin, and eye sacks out of plastic foam rather than putty, to allow for more natural facial movement. He then painted a flexible red plastic compound onto Welles’s face, followed by skin-colored liquid greasepaint and translucent talcum. Instead of using a preformed moustache, he applied individual hairs above Welles’s upper lip to control the moustache’s texture and color.
Accession number
1989.064
Donor credit
Bequest of Maurice Seiderman
Material
On view in Behind the Screen
The cataloging and digitization of the Museum's collection is made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the New York State Council on the Arts.
