As the head of Universal's make-up department, Pierce is credited with designing and creating the iconic make-ups for films like
Frankenstein,
The Mummy (1932),
The Wolf Man (1941), and their various sequels associated with the characters. Utilizing his "out-of-the-kit" techniques, Pierce's make-ups were often very grueling and took a considerable amount of time to apply. Pierce was always reluctant to use latex appliances, favoring his technique of building facial features out of cotton and
collodion, or nose putty. Pierce eventually started using latex appliances, most notably a rubber nose for
Lon Chaney Jr. in
The Wolf Man (1941) (the edges of the appliance are clearly visible through most of the film), and a rubber head piece for Boris Karloff in
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and
Son of Frankenstein (1939).
With Lon Chaney Jr. Pierce was not especially liked around Universal, which in part led to his demise at the studio. His most notorious relationship being with Lon Chaney Jr. Both worked on four Wolf Man films and three Mummy films at Universal. Chaney claimed that Pierce compounded difficulties in the long, uncomfortable process with the adding on of sticky appliances. Lon's Wolf Man make-up partially consisted of
yak hair being glued to his face, and having it singed with a hot iron. Chaney claimed Pierce would purposely burn him with the hot iron. Chaney also reputedly had an allergic reaction to the rubber headpiece make-up Pierce used on him in
The Ghost of Frankenstein. Later, Chaney suffered with Pierce's laboriously wrapped bandages for three Mummy films, though the "make-up" was simply a rubber mask designed to Chaney's face and attached with spirit gum. Genre fans seem to have exaggerated the Pierce-Chaney conflict to huge proportions. Chaney was obviously familiar with the rigors of cosmetic transformation, having watched his father for years. He crafted his own
Neanderthal make-up for
One Million B.C., which was certainly as elaborate as the eventual one applied to him; reportedly, he also did his own elaborate burned face make-up for
The Indestructible Man, primarily because of the low budget. Interviewed a year before his death, Pierce was asked if working with Chaney was difficult, to which Pierce answered, "Yes and no, that's all I can say." As for Chaney, despite the reported acrimony, he later called Pierce a make-up genius second only to Chaney's own father.
Signature hair work Outside of his unusual horror makeups, a recurring signature of Pierce's makeup was to give actors a
widow's peak hairline.
Bela Lugosi and his Spanish-language counterpart
Carlos Villarias both wore widow's peak toupees in their respective versions of
Dracula in 1931, and Lugosi's makeup for 1932's
White Zombie included an even more severe widow's peak. Pierce shaved the hairline of
Boris Karloff and turned it into an arrow-like widow's peak for the 1934 film
The Black Cat, and had comedian
Bud Abbott augment his thinning hairline with a widow's peak toupee in his early films with
Lou Costello. Pierce even gave
Lon Chaney Jr. a low, pointed hairline in such
Inner Sanctum films as
Strange Confession and 1943's
Son of Dracula. Conversely, for 1938's
Service de Luxe, a comedy in which
Vincent Price made his film debut, Pierce flattened Price's natural widow's peak with hair plugs. Pierce used the established theatrical method of "laying" beards and mustaches, as did most artists who had risen through the theater and early silent movies. The laborious process involved cutting lengths of hair (human hair, yak hair or crepe hair, depending on the situation), painting spirit gum in a line across the face or jaw, and applying one row of hair. When this dried, a second, overlapping line of hair was glued over that, continuing the procedure until the beard (or werewolf face) was covered. The overall application was then trimmed to the appropriate shape and length. That said, he was not averse to simpler, preformed mustaches or beards. In fact, half of a mustache he applied to John Carradine as Dracula in
House of Frankenstein comes loose in Carradine's tumble from a runaway coach. Jack Pierce was unceremoniously fired from Universal in 1946, after twenty years of service. One theory for this is that Pierce resisted using the new technique of foam latex for make-ups, which was developed in the late 1930s. That presumably would expedite creating monsters faster, thus saving time and money. However, Pierce was no stranger to latex rubber; he had used a latex headpiece on the Frankenstein Monster since 1935, the Wolf Man's brow and nose were always a one-piece rubber appliance, and as noted, the mummy "make-ups" were actually rubber masks. Pierce would farm the creation of these appliances out to craftsman Ellis Berman. Universal made 40 to 60 pictures a year, out of which only a half dozen might include some elaborate character make-up or monster face, and then usually sparingly. He was resistant to using foam latex for old age make-ups, preferring the time-honored procedure of painting a face with spirit gum, applying a layer of tissue paper, then crinkling the paper and repeating the process. In all, most of Pierce's work was supervising his make-up unit, overseeing glamour make-ups on the leading ladies, and standard make-ups for leading men and character players. More to the point, the new management at the studio, now called Universal International, wanted to upgrade the company image from
B-pictures and programmers to prestige pictures. The
Westmore brothers, whose name was as well known in the industry as
Max Factor, leaned on the studio to hire their youngest brother, Bud, to head the department. Though
Bud Westmore's professional experience was limited to minor films for PRC, he was photogenic, charming, and young, unlike Pierce. Universal got the caché of the Westmore name, and Bud Westmore became the head of the department for the next twenty years, and Jack Pierce was out of a job. ==Post-Universal career==