Roy Ashton applying vampire bites to the back of his own hand

A reference photograph showing Roy Ashton (1909-1995) applying vampire bites to the back of his own hand, taken by an unknown photographer in about 1955. These latex puncture marks were applied to the skin and blended with make-up, to make it appear as though blood had been drawn from the victim in the Hammer `Dracula' films.

Roy Ashton (1909–95) and Phil Leakey (1908–92) were master make-up 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’.