Steve LaPorte
About Steve
For over four decades as a makeup artist in the motion picture industry, Steve LaPorte has worked on everything from low-budget to mega-budget productions for film and television. From his first break as a lab assistant at the Burman Studios, he's added a multitude of productions to his credit, including The Color Purple, The Golden Child, The Lost Boys, Beetlejuice (for which he won an Oscar), Terminator 2 & 3, and Windtalkers. Additional awards include a Primetime Emmy for The X-Files, a Saturn Award for Beetlejuice, and a Makeup Guild Award (MUHAS) for Breaking Bad.
From humble beginnings as a commercial art student, in 1974, he attended Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College, where he was exposed to various performing, fabrication, and makeup skills. That led to traveling with the circus for four seasons as a performing clown and high-stilt walker.
Steve was self-taught before landing in Hollywood in 1979. He quickly built his proficiency in beauty, prosthetics, aging and character, lab, and hair work, which led to jobs at the Universal Studios tour, non-union films, and finally to running the makeup lab at NBC and entry into Local 706.
As a Motion Picture Academy member, Steve also served on the Makeup Awards committee, which oversees the Academy Award for Makeup, from 1990 to 2004. Years of feature films, opening two different makeup labs, and TV projects led to the summer of 2004. A new kind of TV series pilot had been completed and was about to continue shooting in Hawaii. Steve got the call, packed up part of his home lab, molds, stock prosthetics, and supplies, and flew off to paradise. ABC's Lost resumed shooting with Steve at the helm of the Makeup Department for six seasons.
Transitioning from feature films into television and Lost proved to be a challenging endeavor. Achieving film quality on a television schedule and budget is a never-ending challenge. In addition to serving as Department Head and Makeup Designer, Steve fabricated all of Lost's prosthetics and makeup effects. Leading and teaching a loyal and close-knit crew allowed him to achieve the high standard that all makeup artists should strive for. Simply put, "Many talented makeup artists have taught me many of my skills, and before I move on, it is my duty to pass those skills on to those who want to carry the torch to the next level." Among those makeup masters are Tom Burman, Ken Chase, Ve Neill, Bob Schiffer, Stan Winston, Rick Baker, William Tuttle, Rob Bottin, Fred Phillips, Jack Petty, Charles Schram, Fred Blau, and Michael Westmore.
LaPorte credits basic out-of-kit techniques as a solid foundation for his work. Using out-of-kit character colors, various adhesives, and sealers for aging, scrapes, scabs, burns, and chapped lips and using basic materials has demonstrated what many of his fellow artists jokingly refer to as craft service makeup. It's creating 3-dimensional effects or enhancing makeup with what you have at hand.
These skills and knowledge of special materials are necessary to be a well-rounded makeup and effects artist. Returning to feature films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Battleship, X-Men, Oz the Great and Powerful, and then back into television, where he rounded out his career as Department Head & Makeup FX Designer on Intelligence, Bosch, Longmire, and finally, Code Black.
Since retiring in 2018, Steve has been enjoying family life, teaching a little, doing demos for trade shows, and designing makeup effects for various productions. In 2023, Steve received The Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by longtime friend Rick Baker. A short run teaching at Cinema Makeup School and Ve Neill's Legends Makeup Academy has led to his YouTube channel, FaceMaker Factory, which is his next endeavor to reach a larger audience with tips, techniques, and encouraging stories for aspiring artists.
