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| Vivienne Walker Zavitz, Stylist to the Stars, Dies at 95 |
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| Zavitz's handiwork on 'Cleopatra' won accolades. |
Posted: Thursday 17 September, 2009
Hairstylist Vivienne Walker Zavitz, a film and television hairstylist whose illustrious career spanned more than 40 years, died of age-related causes Sept. 3 in Los Angeles. She was 95. Walker had been a longtime member of Local 706, the West Coast union of make-up artists and hairstylists.
Born in South Africa and raised in England, Zavitz attracted the attention of Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn in the early ´30s as a manicurist on a New York cruise ship. Cohn arranged a job for her at Denham Studios when she returned to England in 1935. She worked at the studio for more than 20 years, first as a wigmaker, then as hairstylist and hairdressing supervisor. She became head of the hair department in 1939 and styled the era’s leading actors, including Greta Garbo, Rex Harrison, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, Alec Guinness and Maurice Chevalier.
After moving to the United States in the late ‘50s, Zavitz earned her cosmetology license and applied for United States citizenship. In 1959, she became a member of Local 706, and was placed on the Industry Experience Roster as a journeyman. She went on to work with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Barbra Streisand, John Wayne, Peter Sellers, Henry Fonda, Clint Eastwood and Al Pacino.
Zavitz’s filmography included The Thing, Murder by Death, Mommie Dearest, Annie Hall, Being There, Hair, Chinatown, Tom Sawyer, Funny Girl, The Red Shoes and Cleopatra, for which she styled star Elizabeth Taylor. She also worked on such television productions as The Waltons and Miracle on 34th Street; for her work on the 1977 production Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, Walker won an Emmy® award, which she shared with fellow hairstylist Emma M. diVittorio.
Zavitz served on the Local 706 Executive Board from 1971-1981 and retired in 1983. She earned Smitty and Diamond awards for her union leadership. The Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild honored her with its annual Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. She was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by the Society of Camera Operators. Zavitz and daughter Anne co-owned Favian Wigs, which supplied the motion picture, television and advertising industry for many years. Upon her retirement, Zavitz sold Favian Wigs to Natascha Ladek.
Walker was married to special effects pioneer Lee Zavitz, whom she met on location in Fiji. He died in 1977. She is survived by daughter Anne Clanton, nephew Benjamin and step-granddaughter Jan Alexander, a fellow hairstylist and guild member.
Services will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles. A reception will follow at 12:30 in the cemetery’s Masonic Lodge. |
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Make-Up Artist Magazine Features Michael Jackson Retrospective - Monday 06 July, 2009 |
| Following the recent death of Michael Jackson, Make-Up Artist magazine’s next issue (#79) will feature a retrospective of the King of Pop,
featuring interviews with a number of make-up artists who worked with
Jackson over the past three decades, as well as some exclusive,
never-before-published photos. |
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Web Exclusive: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Young Hellboy - Monday 04 August, 2008 |
| From a make-up perspective, the first major character to appear in Hellboy 2 is
a younger version of the hero, seen in a 1955 prologue with Professor
Broom (John Hurt). The Young Hellboy character was created by the
Barcelona-based company DDT Efectos Especiales and played in a
gender-bending twist by the company’s Montse Ribé. |
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Iranian Make-up Innovator Dies at 65 - Wednesday 14 May, 2008 |
| Iranian
movie make-up artist Farhang Moayyeri died May 10 in Tehran of cardiac arrest.
He was 65 and had already fought a long battle with lung cancer, the Iran State
News Agency reported.
Moayyeri
created several make-up designs and prosthetics for Iranian theater, television
and film. He is best known for creating make-up for the films of Bahram Beizai,
Mas'ud Kimiai and other well-known Iranian directors.
According
to the ISNA, Moayyeri was born in 1943 and began his career acting on The
Brick and the Mirror (1965), then tried directing before entering the make-up
industry in 1978. He created the make-up for Bashou, the Little Stranger (1986), Maybe Some Other Time (1988), Killing Mad Dogs (2001) and
other films.
Mohsen
Maleki, head of the Iranian Association of Make-Up Designers, expressed sorrow
over Moayyeri’s death and described him as the father of modern Iranian make-up
design. Moayyeri was honored by the association in 2006 for his efforts to train
new generations of artists in Iran's film industry.
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Wake Up to Make-up! - Thursday 11 December, 2008 |
Australian make-up artist Napoleon Perdis has his own schools, his own cosmetics line, and now, his own reality show: Get Your Face On.
The program, filmed at Perdis’ flagship L.A. store, follows 12 make-up
artists as they vie to become his protégé. The one-hour, 10-episode
show debuted Dec. 8 on the TLC network and is airing every weekday
morning through Dec. 19. We asked Perdis to tell us more.
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