Howard Smit

Howard Smit was an American make-up artist.

Smit began working as a make-up artist at RKO Studios in order to pay for law school. He soon dropped out of law school and became a film studio make-up apprentice. He freelanced for several studios and businesses, including MGM Studios, Republic Studios and Max Factor.

Smit's earliest work film work included in the make-up departments of The Wizard of Oz and Gunga Din. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Smit worked on a number of feature films, especially Westerns.

He worked with some of Hollywood's best known actors of the time, including Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford, Ethel Barrymore, Roy Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck, Dale Evans, Lionel Barrymore, and Robert Mitchum.

Smit worked on two of Alfred Hitchcock's films in the 1960s, Marnie and The Birds.

He switched to television and later worked on The Mod Squad and The Streets of San Francisco.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees offered the Hollywood Motion Picture Make-up Artists Association a union charter in 1937. The charter led to the foundation of the IATSE local 706, Make-up and Hairstylists Guild chapter, in 1937, of which Smit was a founding member. Smit remained active with the Make-up and Hairstylists Guild and other related unions and organizations for more than 60 years, until his retirement in 1994.

Smit served as both a Governor and a board member of the Television Academy.

Smit died August 1, 2009, in Tarzana, California. He was 98.