Imhotep

Imhotep as portrayed by Boris Karloff in Karl Freund's 1932 classic "The Mummy."

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So far I have steered clear of doing the masters. I tell myself that it's because I want to save them for the month of October, but in reality its because I'm afraid I won't do them justice.

But I bit the bullet today, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with the results.

Once again Jack Pierce and Boris Karloff did and amazing job creating the makeup effects for "The Mummy." It was in fact one of the most intense makeups of Karloff's career.

From The Mummy: a History of Horror:
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Jack P. Pierce--the film's (uncredited) makeup man--needed eight hours to transform Karloff into the mummified Imhotep. At 11:00 a.m., the actor appeared in Pierce's quarters, where the makeup genius (working from a photo of King Seti II) pinned back his ears, dampened his face and covered every facial area (including eyelids) with thing cotton strips. Collodion covered the cotton; an electric drying machine preserved the desired wrinkles. The makeup made speech impossible for Karloff, who had to pantomime any point he wanted to get across. Two hours later, Pierce smeared Karloff's hair back with beauty clay and, as the clay hardened, he carved cracks in it. At two in the afternoon, Pierce began covering the actor's face with makeup paint. At five in the afternoon (six hours into the procedure), Pierce wrapped 150 yards of decayed-looking linen around Karloff, then added a dusting of Fuller's earth. By seven o'clock, the "reverse make-over" complete, Pierce walked his crumbly creation to the sound stage, where Karloff took his place in the sarcophagus. The shooting of the scene lasted until 2:00 a.m.
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All for a scene that lasts roughly three minutes, and never even has a full body shot in it... Amazing.