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A miniature portrait bust of Enrico Salvatore Rizzo, aka Ratso (Dustin Hoffman), with legendary makeup effects artist Dick Smith's mold for the sculpture and personal, bound, and hand-marked draft screenplay from the production of John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy. In the film, con man Ratso grew increasingly ill until ultimately dying on a bus to Miami next to Joe Buck (Jon Voight) in the heart-wrenching finale. Smith served as a makeup consultant on the film, including for Ratso's degradation in the final act.
With its groundbreaking depiction of male sexuality and fearless double-header performances from Hoffman and Voight at its center, Midnight Cowboy quickly became a cultural phenomenon upon release, earning Academy Awards® for Best Picture, Director, and Writing along with extremely rare dual nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role. It is today considered among the greatest films ever made and a foundational work of the New Hollywood movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, with writer Waldo Salt credited among its key architects.
The portrait sculpture in this lot is notable for being Smith's first-ever "Small Head," miniature busts of the performers and directors he worked with over the course of his five-decade-plus career. Smith hand-sculpted approximately 40 such "Small Head" busts, including several others featured throughout the Dick Smith Collection, then gifted most of them to their original models. As such, hand-sculpted "Small Heads" - particularly this example, which is modeled in wax - are extraordinarily scarce.
This lot originates from the collection of Smith. In addition to the Ratso bust, it consists of the head's silicone mold, which is hand-marked "Dusty," along with a 122-page, brass brad-bound draft screenplay. The script features a cardstock cover labeled "Jerome Hellman Productions, Inc." with the film's title hand-marked in red ink along its spine and tabs hand-marked with such labels as "Market" and "Term" applied to multiple pages. Approximately 13 interior pages also feature Smith's handwritten annotations, The lot shows evidence of wear throughout consistent with handling and age, including staining on the script's cover and discoloration to the wax. Dimensions: (largest) 8.75" x 11.5" x 0.5" (22.25 cm x 28.75 cm x 1.5 cm)
Estimate: $600 - 1,200
View all lots from MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
View all lots from Dick Smith Collection
Regarded as "The Godfather of Makeup," renowned special makeup effects artist and author Richard Emerson Smith, known professionally as Dick Smith, was a pre-med student at Yale University when he encountered the theatrical makeup book Paint, Powder and Makeup that changed the trajectory of his life. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Smith began his illustrious career in television as the first makeup director of WNBC. Entirely self-taught, Smith pioneered the development of prosthetic and practical makeup with techniques that are now considered the standard in film and television, such as making prosthetics in multiple pieces to allow actors full range of facial expression. He is also credited with creating realistic age makeup as an alternative to prosthetics, blending special effects with hidden bladders and squibs, and for innovating the combination of makeup with on-set "practical" effects, as seen in William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973).
In a time where makeup artists were secretive about their techniques and unions purposely suppressed the sharing of knowledge, Smith proved to be a generous soul, mentoring and training many younger artists who went on to accomplished careers in cinema, including Rick Baker, Mike Marino, Greg Cannom, and many more. Smith went as far as publishing an instructional book in 1965 titled Dick Smith's Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-up Handbook as a special edition of Forrest J. Ackerman's "Famous Monsters of Filmland" series.
With a career that spanned over six decades, Smith is today best known for his work on such classics as Little Big Man (1970), The Godfather (1972), Taxi Driver (1976), Altered States (1980), Scanners (1981), The Hunger (1983), Starman (1984), and Death Becomes Her (1992). In 1985, he won an Academy Award® for Best Makeup for his work on Amadeus, as well as a BAFTA® the following year. He was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences twice with special tribute ceremonies in 2009 and again in 2011, the latter including an Honorary Academy Award® presented by his most acclaimed protégé, Rick Baker. Smith left an indelible legacy in film and television, represented by a curated collection he carefully maintained throughout his career. Propstore is pleased to present these select artifacts from this legendary artist's personal collection, reflecting a distinguished career spanning decades in Hollywood and beyond.
This item comes with a Propstore Certificate of Authenticity.