Cast and Crew: Milicent Patrick

Good day Crewmembers and welcome to “Cast and Crew: Milicent Patrick.”

On the first day of Women’s History Month, I wanted to focus on Milicent for two specific reasons. First, she is responsible for one of my favorite movie creatures in one of my favorite movies; the Gillman from “The Creature From the Black Lagoon”. Secondly, she is still relatively unknown and her legacy was almost wiped out completely.

Born Mildred Rossi, Milicent had a very distinguished pioneering career until recognition for her talent caused a colleague’s jealousy to blackball and bury her. Before turning to special effects, Milicent worked as one of the first female animators for Walt Disney contributing to 4 sequences in “FANTASIA” including creating the winged-devil Chernabog for the finale. Milicent also worked on “Dumbo” before leaving the studio in 1941.

Until 1947, Milicent worked as a model for trade shows and promotional material. She then began acting in small roles for studio productions. During this time, Milicent became interested in the behind-the-scenes work and met Bud Westmore. Bud was the head of Universal Studios' makeup department, and he offered Milicent a job based on her sketches.

She became the first woman to work in a makeup and special effects department and is credited with contributing to the pirate faces in “Against All Flags”, Jack Palance’s makeup in “Sign of the Pagan”, partially designing the “It Came From Outer Space” Globs, Mr. Hyde in “Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, the Metaluna mutant in “This Island Earth”, and was a mask maker for “The Mole People.”

Then in 1953, Milicent designed the Gill-Man creature “The Creature From the Black Lagoon.” The studio was so happy with her work, they sent her on a press tour for the film which they originally called, “The Beauty who Created the Beast.” Bud Westmore quickly had the title changed to “The Beauty who Lives with the Beast” to avoid Milicent getting credit for the creation. After the tour, Milicent returned to LA to find out she had been fired from Universal. Bud Westmore was credited with creating the Gillman and Milicent never worked behind the scenes again.

Thanks to people like Forrest J Ackerman who wrote an 8-page article on Milicent for Famous Monsters Magazine in the 70s, Vincent Di Fate’s 2011 “Black Lagoon” article for Tor.com, and the well researched 2019 book “The Lady from the Black Lagoon” by Mallory O’Meara; Milicent’s amazing contributions to film history have not been forgotten.

Of course, this is just a very quick summary of Milicent’s life and work, and we certainly recommend reading “The Lady from the Black Lagoon” to get more information!

Until then, enjoy the show!