At age 14, Bottin sent an autograph request which included one of his intricate drawings to well-known special make-up effects artist
Rick Baker, who promptly invited him to discuss monsters with him. Eventually he was offered to apprentice with Baker on various films, such as the
Star Wars Cantina scene creatures. Bottin portrayed the tallest player in the Cantina band. His first big solo break was
The Howling, where he was called to create an on-screen transformation from man to werewolf when Rick Baker's schedule was busy with a different production. Notably, Bottin's effect in
The Howling appeared five months before his mentor Baker's similar scene in
An American Werewolf in London. After asking cinematographer
Dean Cundey to introduce him to director
John Carpenter, Bottin was hired by Carpenter to create the special makeup effects for his 1980 film
The Fog. In that film, Bottin provided the physical makeup effects, and had a small part in the film as Captain Blake. Bottin's reputation grew when he again worked with Carpenter on
The Thing. Bottin worked on
The Thing seven days a week (including late nights) for a year and five weeks straight, Bottin's schedule was so punishing, and his attention to detail so precise, that after filming finished, he was hospitalised with exhaustion and
pneumonia. and designed and built many striking special effects in Verhoeven's
Total Recall, the latter of which earned Bottin a
Special Achievement Academy Award. Bottin is believed to have retired from the industry in 2002 due to filmmakers' shift to focusing on CGI for both action and horror, although he briefly returned to the industry to do some practical work for
Game of Thrones in 2014. ==Filmography==