Ashton & Leakey Collection; pencil sketches

Ashton & Leakey Collection; pencil sketches, photographs, prosthetics, sculptures, make-up materials and equipment collectively comprising the Roy Ashton and Phil Leakey collection, assembled between 1945 and 1980. Features materials primarily but not exclusively used on Hammer Films Productions.

Roy Ashton (1909–95) and Phil Leakey (1908–92) were master makeup artists who worked on many of the British cult horror films of the mid-20th century. A trained artist, Australia-born Ashton began his career at Gaumont-British Film Corporation in 1932 as a means of supplementing his passion for opera singing. In 1955, Ashton became the assistant to Hammer Films’ Phil Leakey, the first makeup artist to receive on-screen credit for ‘Special Make-up Effects’.

Following Leakey’s departure from Hammer in 1958, Ashton took over as head makeup artist, where he continued his expert work throughout the 1960s.

From sketches to clay models, reference photographs to prosthetic fangs and glass eyeballs, the Ashton and Leakey Collection shows how special effects makeup moved from concept to screen. Titles represented include The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959), and Phantom of the Opera (1962), among many others.