During the making of John Carpenter's 1978 classic HALLOWEEN, art director Tommy Lee Wallace created slasher Michael Myers' iconic mask by taking a William Shatner / Captain Kirk mask, removing the sideburns, widening the eye holes, and painting the skin white. The same mask used during the filming of HALLOWEEN was also used in the making of the 1981 sequel HALLOWEEN II, where stuntman Dick Warlock wore it as he brought the Myers character to life (and caused the deaths of other characters in the film.)
That mask remained in the possession of Warlock after filming wrapped, and he kept it until 2003, when he sold it to haunted house operator Mark Roberts.
Michael-Myers.net recently caught up with Roberts, who gave an interview to the site, telling the story of how he ended up purchasing the original Myers mask from Warlock:
(Dick Warlock) did tell me that he still had the costume, boots, mask, butcher knife and scalpel and that he would sell it; he just didn't bring them out for appearances. Dick was great with the haunted house customers and hanging out with Dick and Cathy for the weekend was a lot of fun and it went so well we set it up for him to come back the next year. I'm not sure if it was after the 1st or second year but I called Dick up and we made a deal for me to purchase the mask, costume, boots, scalpel and knife. My wife and I went to Dick's house and picked up the mask and costume …
… It really is amazing that Dick thought to keep that stuff and take care of it, when I went to pick it up, he had kept the mask stored in a Elvis Presley tin container. I didn’t get the container, Dick is a big Elvis fan!
Since buying the mask, Roberts has kept it in the dark, in a climate controlled, air tight container. It's still in the same condition it was in when he bought it in 2003… and he provided Michael-Myers.net with a picture of the mask to show us exactly what that condition is.
The mask has seen better days, but it has certainly held up better than the rotting masks seen in Rob Zombie's versions of HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN II.
Check out the image of the mask below, then head over to Michael-Myers.net to read the interview with Mark Roberts.
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