Famous Actors Face Used For Michael Myers Mask

Now that longer nights are just around the corner, us horror fans are getting ready for our favourite holiday; Halloween. For me, it’s a month-long horror film watch-a-thon with a mix of classic horrors, Simpsons Halloween specials and family films such as Hocus Pocus.

One film that always makes it to my rewatch list is John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween. It’s the ideal slasher film. It’s a little campy, a little scary and now, almost 50 years since it first came out, Michael Myers’ mask is still quite creepy even among the dated horror tropes.

However, I have just learned that this iconic mask was not made for the film and is actually the mask of a famous actor just… painted white.

So, this mask is actually William Shatner of Star Trek fame’s face just… painted white. That’s it. You can’t unsee it now, right? It’s featureless, pale and fear-inducing but it’s also just William Shatner.

Personally, I would be pretty offended if something on my body contributed to such a horror icon and I’m not sure he was very thrilled, either.

Speaking on the YouTube channel Jake’s Takes, he said: “I thought, ‘Is that a joke? Are they kidding?’

“I recognised it as the death mask they had made for me. They made a mask of my face on Star Trek out of clay so I would not have to be available for the prosthetics they would have to put on my face to look old or evil or whatever it was they were making me look like.

“So somewhere along the line, someone got that mask and made a mask of it for [the holiday] Halloween.”

Speaking on Netflix’s The Movies That Made Us, Halloween production designer and editor Tommy Lee Wallace shared that when he was tasked with finding a ‘creepy mask’, he visited a magic shop on Hollywood Boulevard which had a large display of masks.

He said: “Up on the shelves were these full face masks of Richard Nixon, and down at the end was Mr. Spock. And right next to it was this blank face [Shatner’s character] Capt. Kirk.”

He then made it creepier by enlarging the eyeholes, removing the eyebrows and sideburns, darkening the hair and of course, painting the face white.

Halloween is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.