Master of make-up and creature effects gives tour of his studio

VAN NUYS, Calif. (KABC) -- When it comes to make-up, don't think Max Factor for this story. Think creep factor instead!

Actually, the work of Kevin Yagher goes beyond the scary.

At his studio in Van Nuys, the make-up and creature effects artist gave us a tour of some of his "most excellent" work.

For instance, with decades of experience behind him, he turned Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves into 95-year-old versions of their characters for the recent sequel "Bill & Ted Face The Music."

"I'm really proud of the old age make-up I did on this movie," Yagher said, "And if you stay for the movie, to the end of the movie, you get to see, there's a little surprise after the credits. You get to see another side with those guys. Yagher was also behind turning Bill & Ted into very muscular prisoners for the movie. He actually worked on all three movies in the franchise.

One trip to his studio and you know he's worked with a lot of actors and actresses over the years. Plus, one really nasty doll!

"Yes, the Chucky doll was my creation," Yagher said of the popular horror character we first met in the movie "Child's Play."

He explained, "He goes through several changes and becomes more evil and more human. He gets a receded hairline and all that stuff. But, yeah, I did the first four films of 'Child's Play'."

Yagher made a name for himself in horror movies. He did work for the "Friday The 13th" franchise and he spent time on "Elm Street."

This make-up and creature effects artist also created some very lifelike bodies of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage for the 1997 action-thriller, "Face/Off."

"They breathe," said Yagher, "They had little eye movement, rapid eye movement, and their faces kind of twitched around like they were in a coma, sleeping."

Yagher said the fake bodies got a lot of screen time in the movie.

"You could actually lay your hands on Nic Cage's chest if you wanted to," he said. "The hairs are all punched in one by one."

Yagher loves what he does so much, he says he will do it as long as Hollywood wants him. He knew what he wanted in life when he was working on "Child's Play," falling in love with leading lady Catherine Hicks. One day on the set, he was supposed to do her make-up.

"And she didn't want me to get that close to her at that point," Yagher said, "She didn't want me to see, I guess, any little flaws or something so she nixed that whole idea."

They've been married now 30 years.