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(written from a Production point of view)

Michael "Mike" George Westmore (born 22 March 1938; age 85) was the makeup designer, makeup artist, and makeup supervisor on all of the Star Trek spin-offs set in the prime universe, and created the majority of species that first appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. He was also the makeup artist for the four Next Generation movies, Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek Nemesis, as well as three Star Trek video games, Star Trek: Klingon, Star Trek: Borg and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Westmore was nominated for an Academy Award for the makeup for Star Trek: First Contact. He had already won the award for 1985's Mask (shared with Star Trek Nemesis makeup artist Zoltan Elek) and was nominated for 1984’s 2010. Spanning the years 1988-2005, Westmore was nominated for an Emmy Award every year the spin-off television series franchise was in production, the only Star Trek staffer to do so. Receiving on several occasion two nominations in a particular year, his total was 24 nominations, of which he won five. Apart from his Star Trek work, he also garnered in those years additional Emmy Award nominations for the television series and movies Highway to Heaven, David (both in 1988), Babe Ruth (1992), and Geppetto (2000), bringing his grand total of nominations to 28.

In addition, Westmore has the distinction of becoming one of the very few Star Trek staffers in any function, to have officially served uninterrupted for the full eighteen years on the entire production run of the modern television franchise, having worked on all series and movies produced during that era (excepting Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, due to his commitments to The Next Generation) at one time or another.

In 2001, Westmore was featured on a photograph as a colonist of the SS Conestoga in the Star Trek: Enterprise first season episode "Terra Nova".

His name also appeared on several dedication plaques and okudagrams and various "characters": M. Westmore, Mike Westmore, and Michael Westmore.

On the first five DVD's of Deep Space Nine, "Michael Westmore's Aliens" is a special feature in which he talks about his favorite aliens in the that series. There is also an extended interview with Westmore in the Star Trek: Insurrection (Special Edition) DVD. In addition to those interviews, he was one of the authors of Star Trek: The Next Generation Makeup FX Journal and Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts.

Career outside Star Trek[]

Hailing from Los Angeles, California, Michael Westmore was born in an extended family of which many members were working in the motion picture industry. Westmore's father, Monte Westmore, was a hair stylist and makeup artist on the classic film Gone With the Wind (1939, featuring Phyllis Douglas and cinematography by Ernest Haller). Westmore's daughter, McKenzie Westmore, is an actress and has appeared in three Star Trek productions. His son, Michael Westmore, Jr., worked on Star Trek as an editor and prosthetic technician. His aunt, Pat Westmore worked as a hair stylist on Star Trek: The Original Series. His brother, Monty Westmore and sister-in-law, June Westmore also worked on Star Trek as makeup artists. Many other members of the Westmore family are famous makeup artists.

Outside of the Star Trek saga, Westmore was the makeup artist for several films including Scream of the Wolf (1974), Raging Bull (1980, with Chuck Hicks and Gil Perkins), Rocky (1976, with Michael Dorn), Rocky II (1979, with David Ross), Rocky III (1982), Rocky V (1990, with set decoration by John M. Dwyer) and Along Came a Spider (2001, with Anton Yelchin, cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti and music by Jerry Goldsmith). He also designed the Sleestak costumes for Land of the Lost. Westmore was the makeup artist on Nicholas Meyer's 1983 TV movie The Day After (having also earned him an Emmy Award nomination), co-starring Bibi Besch and photographed by Gayne Rescher. In his early days, he was Butch "Eddie" Patrick's makeup artist on The Munsters.

Star Trek interviews[]

Star Trek awards[]

With 31 award wins and nominations for his work on the franchise, Michael Westmore is by far the most honored Star Trek staffer in any category, or function for that matter, in the history of the franchise. Yet, it is the number two most honored production staffer, with 22 wins and nominations, Dan Curry, who holds the record with the most actual wins; nine versus five for Westmore. Westmore has received the following awards and nominations in the various Makeup categories:

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