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Stuart Freeborn At Work: Turning Alec Guinness Into Fagan
A tribute to the late, great makeup artist

With the death of the great Stuart Freeborn, cinema has lost a true pioneer. Born on the same patch of Leytonstone as Alfred Hitchcock, he made a name for himself in the same gilded era of British cinema, working with Korda, Powell and Pressburger, before turning his eye for character design and prosthetics to big Hollywood blockbusters - Superman and Star Wars among them.

George Lucas has acclaimed "his artistry and craftsmanship [that] will live on forever in the characters he created", and we've cast our eye back over one of them: Alec Guinness's Fagin in Oliver Twist. Freeborn's hooked nose, straggly hair and heavy prosthetics were deliberately styled to exaggerate the character's sheer Dickensian grotesqueness and make him larger-than-life. With David Lean and the 34 year-old Guinness, he created a controversial but indelible character.

WORDS PHIL DE SEMLYEN
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Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

Stuart Freeborn applying make-up to Alec Guinness for Oliver Twist

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1 A Genius of his Craft
Dear Empire. These images are incredible. Thanks so much for sharing them. If you have any more from this great man's work please upload them. More

Posted by TheSomnambulist on Friday February 8, 2013, 11:14


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