It's the on screen image of our favorite actors that we remember.  We seldom consider the amount of time spent developing makeup effects, with the countless tests necessary to create a classic image.

Following a long established stage tradition, film actors would often sit for "lifecasts" or Life Masks, where their faces or whole heads would be covered in plaster, creating an exact negative image that could be used to make positive castings, or Life Masks.  It was these Life Masks that "stood in" for the actors in the make up development.

Today these Life Mask casts are highly sought after collectibles, with crumbling originals bringing prices in the thousands of dollars for the rarest. 

Hundreds of Life Masks have been in limited circulation since the first days of film making, and the beginning of the "star system".  Originally these masks were jealously guarded among an "elite" group of collectors. 

All of that changed when Television came into full force in the 1950s.  Studios began a decades long process of cutting back, selling off of assets, and scrapping the unnecessary. 

When Universal International moved heavily into Television Production with their Revue division, several hundred plaster negative life mask molds were "junked" by the studio.  These molds, along with other props and paper collectibles, were saved from the trashman's bin by  studio workers who saw the current and future value in the items.  Virtually all of today's castings of the classic masks come from molds and first generation casts discarded by the studios during this period.

We invite you to have a look at the Life Masks in our collection.  We believe that each is the best example available to the collector today.  Just click on the Life Mask image above to see more information and high resolution images.  If you would like to own one of these classic collectibles, just click the eBay logo to visit our auctions.

Probably the biggest question I am asked is "where did you get all of these, and why so many of each for a personal collection?"  That's a fair question; I have been collecting movie memorabilia since I was 13 years old, in 1963.  I have worked in the motion picture and television industry since the 1970s, and have been in a position to come into possession of many rare and highly desirable items.  In 1996 I came up with the idea of a Halloween Party to end all Halloween Parties for the company I was managing, Absolute Post Inc.  At left is one of our framed invitations, to be given to each partygoer.   We were also planning on giving each person attending a life mask as a party favor.   I had earlier given out masks as a holiday gift, and they were quite popular.

In typical Hollywood fashion, I left the company prior to the party, the framed invitations and life masks were never given out, and I acquired them all later as part of a salary settlement.  I have had them for sale in my Antique Shop since.

Now, with eBay and the internet, I have had the opportunity to acquire more life masks and props from private collectors around the world.   Keep watching our auctions and these pages for new masks.

In the photo to the left you can see a dust covered 3/4 head life cast of actress Angelina Jolie.  This mask was taken to create the large silicone effects head mask also seen in the picture. 

This one of a kind item was saved from the dumpster by a former student of mine.  It makes quite the nice piece with the Jolie life mask, as you can see below.

This original "reveal" mask was worn by Jolie during production of The Rolling Stones music video for Has Anybody Seen My Baby.  The large effects mask was designed to cover the entire head, with a zipper provided for a reveal.  The scene with the mask was cut from the final video.  

Below you can see how the effects head was to have opened to "reveal" Jolie.  The mask shows the face of a black man, and as you can see from the inside of the mask, it was designed to fit Jolie quite snugly.

I have never understood why this was no planned as a digital effect.  Certainly the technology was in place by the middle 1990s and it would have been much easier on Jolie than this full head mask that hardly provided room for air.  Perhaps that is part of the reason the idea was dropped, who knows?

This mask was produced in 1995, and has been in our collection since 1998. 

This item is so rare as to have been thought lost, but it's just one of the many treasures waiting in The Haunted Studios!

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