Leonard Engelman Dead:, ‘Rocky IV,’ ‘Moonstruck’ Makeup Artist Was 83

Leonard Engelman, the esteemed make-up artist who labored on movies together with Rocky IV, The Princess Diaries, Batman & Robin and How the Grinch Stole Christmas and did Cher’s make-up for greater than 30 years, has died. He was 83.

Engelman died Thursday at Northridge Hospital Medical Heart, his spouse of 42 years, artist Esther Engelman, advised The Hollywood Reporter. The reason for demise is unclear, she mentioned.

The son of a Hollywood make-up artist, Engelman labored for a very long time to persuade the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences to put in a make-up department, as these artisans had at all times been “at-large” members. And when it did so in 2006, he was elected its first governor. Later, he labored to have hairstylists added.

He additionally served as an Academy vp and board member for a few years.

Engelman obtained Emmy nominations in 1972 for an episode of Night time Gallery and in 2001 for the miniseries Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, starring Joanne Whalley. He was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild in 2017.

As Cher’s private make-up artist, Engelman labored with the actress and elegance icon on her photograph shoots and on her movies Moonstruck (1987), Suspect (1987), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Mermaids (1990), Devoted (1996), Tea With Mussolini (1999) and Burlesque (2010).

Minutes after she was introduced because the winner of the most effective actress Oscar for Moonstruck in 1988, the primary particular person she thanked on the Shrine Auditorium podium was her “make-up man, who had lots to work with.”

Throughout his 50-year profession, Engelman additionally dealt with make-up for Sylvester Stallone on Rambo: First Blood Half II (1985), Rocky IV (1985) and Cobra (1986).

For his or her first collaboration, he pioneered using silicon, reasonably than rubber — which didn’t take up perspiration — for the “home equipment” on Stallone’s face for his swelling, bruises, cuts, and so forth., he defined in a 2019 interview.

Engelman additionally labored with Debra Winger on Betrayed (1988), Everyone Wins (1990) and Wilder Napalm (1993) and with Meg Ryan on Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Flesh and Bone (1993) and When a Man Loves a Girl (1994).

Born in Burbank on Might 9, 1941, Leonard Alex Engelman was the son of a make-up artist with the identical first, center and final title who labored on a lot of Forties Westerns earlier than he died when his boy was simply 11.

Engelman graduated from Burbank Excessive College, landed a job at Common and obtained his first credit score on Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz (1969).

His résumé additionally included the films The Black Stallion (1979), Cat Individuals (1982), Ghostbusters (1984), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Twins (1988), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), Warmth (1995) and Oz the Nice and Highly effective (2013) and the TV reveals Cagney & Lacey and The Defend.

Engelman educated a number of generations of artists on the Cinema Make-up College in Los Angeles and was a beloved member of Native 706 (the make-up and hairstylists guild) for greater than 5 a long time.

Along with his spouse, survivors embody their kids, Steven, Kimberly, Anna and Jennifer (a make-up artist, too), and 6 grandchildren.

“I used to be advised once I was beginning off as a make-up artist that in case you have been going to be actually good, you needed to study all the things, you needed to study magnificence, all of the characters, all of the growing older, all of the hair work, all the bruising, the prosthetics,” he as soon as mentioned. “I did all the things I might to study all of that.”

Scott Feinberg contributed to this report.