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Top 5 performances in Latex makeup.

Dennis said:
Maurice Evans, Planet Of The Apes. Dude was subtle.
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Yes! His banter with Heston in that film is awesome! Damn fine actor, and a damn fine character. :techman:

I would like to re-iterate Auberjonois as Odo and Gossett in Enemy Mine. I'm also a huge fan of Rick Baker's work in the '70's King Kong re-make---some folks prolly don't know that he not only designed the suit, but he performed the character, as well.
 
Roddy McDowall in the Planet of the Apes movies would be my all time favorite. I would also say Paul Winfield in TNG's Darmok. He conveyed a variety of emotions in that episode which all makes sense by the end. This could not have been easy considering the difficulty of that story.
 
Flying Spaghetti Monster said:
The best single performance under lots of latex is Phil Morris, and this is the scene. Just wonderful stuff.
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A fantastic scene and Yes Phil Morris was great in that role! I loved the nod to 'None But The Brave' one of my all time favorite WWII movies in that episode.

5) Roddy McDowall as Corneilius in the first Planet of the Apes. More so as Corneilus than Caesar but he was great in every role he did.

4) Kevin Peter Hall in Predator II, my favorite part is how easily he conveyed surprised without speaking when the younger predator (this time around) discovers he has been snuck up on by Busey's boys by switching his visual settings. Just great method acting.

3) John Hurt in Elephant Man and the agonizing death/shock scene in Alien.

2) Louis Gosset jr. as Jeriba 'Jerry' Shivan in 'Enemy Mine' always a guilty pleasue I love that movie.

1) Andreas Katsulas - G'Kar - so moving was his protrayal of that character I would often forget that was an actor in makeup and not a real person. Its so hard to see him in the Fugitive and NOT hear G'Kar :bolian:

God I miss Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine.

Vons
 
Temis the Vorta said:
Here's my Top Five of the Moment (I'm sure to be forgetting dozens of people, including some from other shows :rommie:):

1. Harris Yulin as Amon Maritza, DS9
2. Andrew Robinson as Elim Garak, DS9
3. Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat, DS9
4. Rene Auberjonois as Odo, DS9
5. Casey Biggs as Damar, DS9
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I totally agree with you Temis, although I'd put Odo at number 2, thus knock Garek and Dukat down a notch.

My family and I are sitting through seven seasons of Next Generation, and decided to add DS9 (and the NG-era movies) to the mix the flesh out the Next Gen timeline (F:evil::evil:K Voyager!), and we just got through Season One of DS9 and Harris Yulin's wonderful proformance.

DS9 Forever!!
 
It should be noted that prior to about 1945/6, no one was wearing latex. Lon Chaney wore a broad variety of things, but mostly built up cheesecloth (gauze) mixed with a filler, much like Boris Karloff(real name William Henry Pratt) did in 'Frankenstein.' Oh, and as the Phantom of the Opera, Lon Chaney wore Scotch tape to turn up the end of his nose!
 
In no particular order: -

Andreas Katsulas - B5 (duh)
Roddy McDowall - Planet of the Apes
Ron Perlman - Hellboy 1 & 2
Doug Jones - Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan's Labyrinth, Buffy, Crusade et al.
Louis Gosset jr - Enemy Mine
 
I like the way filk artist Tom Smith puts it:
Digression: Andreas Katsulas is one of the best actors in the history of the world. Period. Right up there with Anthony Hopkins, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, he's THAT freakin' good. And he's like Ginger Rogers, backward and in heels: Katsulas delivers more emotion under ten pounds of latex than most actors deliver in an entire career.
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There are a great many excellent mentions in here. Kudos to Dennis for mentioning Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius, who really did turn in a subtly effective performance. Nice for the world that Maurice has something more than being Samantha Stevens father on his resume.
 
Vasquez Rocks said:
Roddy McDowall in the Planet of the Apes movies would be my all time favorite. I would also say Paul Winfield in TNG's Darmok. He conveyed a variety of emotions in that episode which all makes sense by the end. This could not have been easy considering the difficulty of that story.
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Wow, good catch.

It's never easy being the alien of the week, I'm sure.

But Winfield had to do it not only under latex but also with minimal language, given the premise and plot of the episode.

That is probably one of my three favorite TNG episodes. It's easily the best written episode; I like the fact that the resolution comes entirely from the characters thinking the problem through instead of through technobabble.
 
That guy who played General Sarris in Galaxy Quest. I was always impressed by how expressive his makeup was, and he had a great voice.
 
Wayne Pygram, Scorpius, Farscape


but I think we can all agree that G'Kar is the clear winner :D
 
doubleohfive said:
No list like this is complete sans Alan Rickman in Galaxy Quest
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I'm not sure if he qualifies to be honest. At the risk of hair splitting; he's not acting through the latex, he just happens to have some in top of his head while acting like Alan Rickman. It's the same way you wouldn't necessarily think of Nana Visitor as acting through the make-up. The latex just so happens to be there.
 
Reverend said:
doubleohfive said:
No list like this is complete sans Alan Rickman in Galaxy Quest
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I'm not sure if he qualifies to be honest. At the risk of hair splitting; he's not acting through the latex, he just happens to have some in top of his head while acting like Alan Rickman. It's the same way you wouldn't necessarily think of Nana Visitor as acting through the make-up. The latex just so happens to be there.
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Right. The point of the thread is to identify great examples of an actor's ability to act through a prosthetic or mask that covers most or all of the face. This usually requires a more subtle degree of body language control, expression through the eyes and verbal language, things like that. Brent Spiner and Leonard Nemoy wear makeup, for example, but the audience can still connect with their natural facial expressions.

So many great examples in the thread already, it's hard to think of anyone who hasn't been mentioned. Oh, I've got one:

Joseph Lockard Martin, Jr. as Gort in "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Like Kevin Peter Hall as the The Predator, he filled the screen with his presence, though in his case a more deliberate awe than menacing predator.
 
None of that was stipulated in the original post. Fair enough though, it's your thread, but what's the big deal? I mean, is it so refined a topic that my example can't be included also? Are we so rigid in our thinking?

As for Alan Rickman's performance as Alexander Dane, playing Dr. Lazarus, well, he wears the headpiece throughout the entire picture. Even when he's at home eating his noodles, he's wearing the headpiece! Surly fed up actor, tired of his nerdy fans, to sarcastic theater elitist, to mournful, revenge-promising friend ... he rant the gamut of emotions through that movie and made me laugh each time, and really sold his performance despite being stuck with a latex squid on his head for two hours.

But, if we're going to go by the now-spelled out rules of the thread, here are my suggestions:

5.) Max Grodenchik as Rom, DS9
4.) Andy Hallett as Lorne, Angel
3.) The guy who played Karr D'Argo, Farscape
2.) Michael Dorn as Worf, TNG
1.) Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar or Tomalak, B5/TNG
 
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