You don’t know who this is. Pretty little thing. Looks like a rocking-type fellow, right? Maybe he was the rhythm guitarist for Humble Pie, or the drummer for The Sweet or something like that.
Nope.
His name’s Pierre LaRoche, and Pierre was a makeup artist. Nowadays, the job is initialized as MUA, which my brain always reads as a the sound of a large Jewish aunt air-kissing someone she hates, and you can get rich and famous doing it, but in the 70’s you could create two of the most iconic looks in pop culture history and be completely forgotten to the point where you don’t even warrant a Wikipedia page. You don’t know who Pierre LaRoche is.
But you do.
Pierre LaRoche designed Ziggy’s lightning bolt look, and also gave him a face to go with that dreamy blue suit and wild red mullet.
You remember that:
And that would be enough, one would think; call it a day, Pierre! Sit your skinny Gallic ass down and chain-smoke and complain about the food. You deserve a break.
But Pierre LaRoche did not take a break. Instead, he went to work for a low-budget film based on a no-budget play about a sweet couple named Brad (who was an asshole) and Janet (who was a slut). Neither Brad nor Janet needed much makeup, but the bad guy did.
Pierre LaRoche did this:
Frank and Ziggy: each face came from the same Frenchman’s mind, and we never got to thank him. Pierre LaRoche died in 1991 of exactly what you’d assume a makeup artist would have died from in 1991.
But now you know who he is.
(With thanks to Mr. Completely for hipping me to this secret knowledge.)
I knew a few fabulous and talented people who met a similar fate. None of them (to my knowledge) has one masterpiece quite as perfect as one of these… much less two.
that is such good information. i love frank ‘n furter, and of course i loved bowie, and when i think of the talent and character and intelligence we lost in those years it enrages me. of course, so many things enrage me these days….
Good stuff!