Howard Roy Ashton was an Australian tenor, associated for a while with Benjamin Britten's English Opera Group, and make-up artist who became particularly associated with his work on the Hammer Horror films.
18 Facts About Roy Ashton
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Roy Ashton's mother was a talented pianist and singer: Dame Nellie Melba had offered to take her to England to join her opera company, but on condition that she remained single.
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Roy Ashton won a scholarship to Perth Modern School, where his talent for art and music blossomed.
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Roy Ashton then studied architecture, and worked as an illustrator of architectural subjects.
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Once in London, Roy Ashton enrolled at The Central School of Arts and Crafts.
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Roy Ashton then worked freelance, being involved in a number of productions by London Films including Prison Without Bars, the first in which he was in charge of make-up.
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Roy Ashton gained a scholarship for the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied singing every other day and where he met his future wife, Elizabeth Cooper, who was studying singing.
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Roy Ashton was then drafted into the army where he served for two and a half years.
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Roy Ashton was demobbed in January 1946, and was finally able to devote himself to music.
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In December 1947, Roy Ashton joined Benjamin Britten's English Opera Group, understudying Peter Pears and creating the role of the Mayor in Albert Herring.
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Roy Ashton kept his hand in as a make-up artist in film, remaining a member of The National Association of Theatre and Kine Employees; during the summer months, he worked as a make-up artist to support his life as a singer during the winter.
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Roy Ashton found 1952 a particularly lean year for singing work: with the rise of broadcasting, combined with the fact "oratorio societies and music clubs, smaller opera clubs had spent all their money in 1951 for the Festival of Britain", several touring opera companies had to be wound up.
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In 1955, Roy Ashton was finally forced to make a choice.
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Roy Ashton's work as a make-up artist was a more lucrative and stable source of income, so he devoted himself to that career.
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Roy Ashton subsequently created some of the studio's most celebrated images in films, such as The Mummy, The Curse of the Werewolf and The Reptile.
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Roy Ashton was particularly proud of the make-up he created for The Curse of the Werewolf, which he claimed he created quite unaware of the make up by Jack Pierce in Werewolf of London or that used in Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete.
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Roy Ashton worked on a number of Amicus horror films, including The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum, and Tales from the Crypt, and worked on Tigon's The Creeping Flesh.
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Roy Ashton died in England on January 10,1995 at the age of 85.