Hailing from a conservative family of businessmen and bankers, as a young man in occupied Japan, Shu Uemura dreamed of becoming an actor. But, fearing that his weak constitution would hamper his chances of success, he instead enrolled at Tokyo Beauty Academy -- the only man in a class of 130.
In 1957, a makeup artist on the set of a Hollywood production being filmed in Tokyo, came to the school in search of a male assistant. Uemura's career as a makeup artist was launched.
After three years fashioning the onscreen faces of famed Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Edward G. Robinson, Uemura, who turned 78 last month, found widespread fame when he transformed Shirley MacLaine from a sassy redhead into a sultry maiko (trainee geisha) for the 1962 flick "My Geisha.''