The House of Westmore beauty salon was opened on 16 April 1935, on
Sunset Boulevard. Perc (pronounced "Perss" not "Perk") was instrumental in finishing the project, as the brothers had run out of money before finishing it. Whilst working on
Stranded, he told actress
Kay Francis of their plight. She responded by giving him a blank cheque to complete the project, which he cashed for $25,000. Francis, along with other stars of the day including
Marlene Dietrich,
Clara Bow and
Carole Lombard, subsequently helped launch the studio. Whilst he was head of the Warner Brothers make-up department, he piloted several changes including introducing a description of shades of
hair colour to use different types of make-up more appropriately. Whereas prior to Perc, studios described actresses simply as blonde or
brunette, Perc introduced a chart of thirty five shades of blonde alone. During the production of one film, Perc created a detailed
latex hand for a close-up shot. According to Perc's brother Frank, the hand was so detailed that he was visited by doctors to study it and the process was adapted for use by the
medical industry. Perc was involved in the House of Westmore beauty product range, and one promotion run by the company gave away copies of "Perc Westmore's Make-up Guide". One such advertisement described Perc's achievements as "responsible for the coilfure and make-up of such great stars as
Bette Davis,
Ann Sheridan,
Merle Oberon,
Olivia de Havilland,
Brenda Marshall... and at one time or another has worked with practically every great
star of Hollywood." He made an onscreen
cameo in the 1937 film
Hollywood Hotel. Perc was the make-up artist for Bette Davis during the filming of
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex in 1939, where she became the first Hollywood actress to appear bald on screen (although it was actually only a couple of inches of her hairline which was shaved, to appear bald under wigs). This wasn't due to Westmore's ideas, but because Davis wanted to appear historically accurate as
Queen Elizabeth. He very nearly changed
Lauren Bacall's styling to something similar to Marlene Dietrich when Bacall attended for her screen test prior to her first film for Warner Bros. Bacall panicked at the suggestion and called producer
Howard Hawks who insisted to Perc that he should leave her the way she was. In 1951, he worked with the
United States Navy to develop a
hair style for female personnel which would stand up to
sea breezes and prevent the hair from falling against the collar, which at the time was against regulations. Perc died of a heart attack on 30 September 1970, at his home in
North Hollywood. He is interred at
Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park. He was posthumously nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Make-up at the
23rd Primetime Emmy Awards in 1971 for his work on
The Third Bill Cosby Special. The award went to
Robert Dawn for
Mission: Impossible. On 3 October 2008, the Westmore family received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work in the motion picture industry. ==Personal life==