Richard Snell

Sometimes a man is the sum total of the work he leaves behind. This might best describe makeup artist Richard Snell, who passed away on February 21 on location for the second Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, currently filming in the Bahamas. Snell was one month shy of his 50th birthday. Snell was an artist's artist, plying his trade in the early 1980s before getting his break in such films as Poltergeist II and House by mid-decade. He created both Klingon and Vulcan prosthetics for the fourth, fifth, and sixth Star Trek films under his own company name and often served as a contact lens technician on his projects. By the 1990s, Snell, who worked ardently in his home studio on Cantara Street in Reseda, California, was an in-demand artist for a variety of horror, science fiction, and fantasy films, on which he served many projects as the makeup department head or key makeup artist. Known as a master of prosthetic and special effects makeup, Snell acquired key assignments on landmark m