Dick Smith, the Oscar-winning ‘Godfather of make-up’ who amused and fascinated moviegoers by devising unforgettable transformations of Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Linda Blair in The Exorcist, among others, has died. He was 92.

Smith, the first make-up artist to win an Academy Award for lifetime achievement, died in California of natural causes. His death was confirmed by Sue Cabral-Ebert of the Make-up Artists and Hairstylists Guild.

Smith transformed the middle-aged Brando into the jowly patriarch Vito Corleone, the teenage Blair into a terrifying demon, and William Hurt into a mass of protoplasm for Altered States.

Smith won an Oscar in 1985 for his work on Amadeus, where he turned F. Murray Abraham into an elderly man as Mozart’s rival Salieri.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.