Quest for Fire (1981) Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) The Cell (2000)

A self-described "makeup artist who designs and creates characters and unusual beings" in an industry where women who do so are a rare commodity. Having originally immigrated to Canada from Ireland, she began doing fashion andbeauty makeup, but she felt like her real calling was in the movies. After apprenticing on several films for no pay just to get into the door, Burke wound her way into a career in feature films, often creating complicated special makeup designs and applications. Eventually working in Montreal, Burke had to struggle since women in the early 1980s were not entrusted to do the typical lab work involved in prosthetics, such as sculpting, making molds, and working with different materials to create special makeup appliances. After learning all she could about special effects makeup, Burke was on her way to becoming what she called the Queen of Horror. Burke's first big break came when she was called to work on the 1981 French-Canadian production, QUEST FOR FIRE. As the film called for a re-creation of the time when Earth was sparsely populated with Neanderthal people, Burke and her team were responsible for creating the protruding foreheads, flared nostrils, and unique looks for the characters over a 7-month production period. "Once we got the actors, we would sculpt the makeups and director Jean-Jacques Annaud would check them," she recalled. "In Africa, we'd have to keep the makeup artists' work consistent so that there wouldn't be changes in the characters' looks. I'd set up little workshops to show people how to do the makeups because accurate Neanderthal characters had never been done before on such a large scale. There were four different tribes, each consisting of 40 or more people. The first makeup team was mostly English, run by Sarah Monzani, and I headed the second part, which was mostly Canadian." Surprisingly enough, the experience garnered Burke an Academy Award nomination for best makeup. "I was called and told that I was nominated," remembered Burke. "I put the phone down and never thought twice about it at the time because I didn't know what it meant. I had never been to Hollywood, and I didn't know anything about the Academy Awards. Then, to my amazement, we won!" Burke followed her success on QUEST FOR FIRE with two other films dealing with primitive man -- ICEMAN and CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR -- in both cases, working with future STAR TREK makeup supervisor Michael Westmore. "For Clan of the Cave Bear, we were co-heads of the makeup department and devised a system called double-teaming where two people would do the makeup together. We prepped the show out of Michael's studio in Los Angeles, so that is how I made it down to Hollywood." Once she arrived in LA, Burke had to re-establish herself, doing movies of the week and character work to get back into the makeup union. Shortly after that, CYRANO DE BERGERAC, brought her another Academy Award nomination and a British Academy Award. Shortly thereafter, Burke received the assignment of designing the looks of makeup and hair for all of the characters in BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, while special makeup artist Greg Cannom created the old age look, the Bat creature and Wolf creature for Gary Oldman. Burke's achievements on BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA garnered her another Academy Award for best makeup, indirectly leading to her next major project. "It was at the awards that I bumped into director Neil Jordan," said Burke. "Neil was Irish and had known that I was on DRACULA. We verbally agreed there at the awards that Stan Winston would design the looks and I would run the show for INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE." With the combination of Burke's versatility and the prosthetic innovations from Stan Winston's team, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE contains an array of striking makeups, from Tom Cruise's various likenesses to the startling vein effects on the other vampire characters. "I thought of the idea of using tattoo inks for the veins because that was the only way to keep them on all day without rubbing off," Burke recalled. "The appliance makeups were really beautiful, like putting skin over skin, but ultimately, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE was not meant to be a makeup stage for us to be on. It wasn't one of those films where makeup takes over. It was more important that the characters look the part." Following VAMPIRE, Burke was makeup supervisor on the 1997 hit AS GOOD AS IT GETS, originally called "Old Friends," starring Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear. Many other prestigious projects came for Burke, including MOLL FLANDERS, SOME MOTHER'S SON, and JERRY MAGUIRE, for which she was Tom Cruise's makeup artist and ran the show. Burke soon landed her next big project, though this one arrived within a decidedly bizarre situation. "When they called me for the Austin Powers sequel," Burke recalled, "they basically said 'we want you to do Doctor Evil, Mini-Me and the Austin Powers character.' My challenge was that I had to create the characters identical to the first film without any notes, which is a typical challenge we all face as make-up artists. I had to copy the Doctor Evil look from stills and the video tape - I had to redo the nose, the earlobes, the scar, the color of the base, everything." For Mike Myers' Austin Powers visage, Burke applied a full-on character make-up with base, liner, mascara, eye brows penciled in, cheeks stippled, highlights, shadows, and chin shaded. "As much as a leading lady would put on, he had that much on," Burke remarked. "I would do his make-up and then the wig would go on. It usually took about an hour to make him into Austin." Burke stays actively involved in beauty makeup for both film and fashion, having done Sharon Stone's makeup for several recent projects, including GLORIA and PICKING UP THE PIECES, which also stars Woody Allen. As for future projects, Burke has a variety of opportunities open to her, not all of which involve movie and TV projects. For one, the beauty makeup manufacturer Max Factor selected Burke as one of six people to be their official Max Factor movie makeup artists.  Best Achievement in Make-Up 1982: QUEST FOR FIRE (w. Sarah Monzani)  Nominated for Achievement in Make-Up 1986: THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR (w. Michael G. Westmore)  Nominated for Achievement in Make-Up 1990: CYRANO DE BERGERAC (w. Jean-Pierre Eychenne)  Best Achievement in Make-Up 1992: BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (w. Greg Cannom & Matthew W. Mungle)  Nominated for Achievement in Make-Up 1999: AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME (w. Mike Smithson)  Nominated for Achievement in Make-Up 2000: THE CELL (w. Edouard Henriques) 6 nominations, 2 Awards