User:Lumn8tion/Hugh Robert Kelly

Hugh Robert "Bob" Kelly. (October 2, 1923 - April 18, 2011) Was born in Brooklyn, NY where he...

Bob Kelly struck out on his own in 1958, founding Bob Kelly Wig Creations. His first solo Broadway credit was The Good Soup, a David Merrick production of 1960. A decade later, he created Bob Kelly Cosmetics. From then on, he worked equally as a make-up artist and a wig maker. His make-up work was frequently in film and television; his credits included "Sgt. Bilko," "The Exorcist" and "The Ed Sullivan Show." Kelly said it was he who dabbed up the young English faces of the Fab Four when they performed on the program in 1964. "You should have seen the crowd outside that theatre," he remembered. "You couldn't get in it was so mobbed." (Kelly admitted he didn't know who The Beatles were at the time he did their make-up.) The make-up line, once ubiquitous, was discontinued in 2005.

Over the years, Kelly has designed and/or built wigs for countless plays and musicals, including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Rothschilds, High Spirits, South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof, Legally Blonde and many more. He and his staff haved worked frequently with many of the leading Broadway hair designers of recent years, including David Brian Brown and David H. Lawrence.