- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMabel Joyce Roberts
- Tommie Manderson was born on September 13, 1912 in Liverpool, England, UK. She is known for The Killing Fields (1984), Willow (1988) and Alien (1979). She died on January 28, 2015 in the UK.
- In 1936 the world's first television service was launched by the BBC at Alexandra Palace and friends encouraged her to try her luck. She was drafted in as a make-up artist and sent to Elizabeth Arden to learn the essentials, but soon realised that the make-up traditionally used for stage and films would not work on television. Instead she developed a more naturalistic style.
- After the war Manderson returned to the BBC, now a senior member of staff under the head of costume and make-up. The department split into two, moved to Lime Grove studios, and by the 1950s she was head of make-up, running a department of more than 100 women, many of whom owed their careers to her help and encouragement. One of them, Pam Meager, said: "She never made you feel she was the boss. She wore an overall like the rest of us. You were a team.".
- She received a Special Achievement Award from the London Critics' Circle Film Awards in 1988.
- In the 1950s much television went out live and the BBC's make-up artists had to be on hand. Manderson and her colleagues wore special shoes so as not to make a noise on the studio floor. To mop the perspiration from performers' faces between shots she came up with the idea of a leather cloth soaked in lavender water or witch-hazel.
- Following the outbreak of the Second World War, television closed down and she served as a volunteer with the London Fire Brigade.
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