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Most of the action sequences, in which audiences see Kong rampaging around his jungle habitat or tearing around New York, were done by a man in a monkey suit. He is Rick Baker, 25, a makeup man responsible for, among other things, aging Cicely Tyson to 100-plus in television's Miss Jane Pittman. "Slightly dippy about gorillas," admits Baker, he began making great ape costumes as a kind of hobby long before he signed on to create Kong's face and form for De Laurentiis. Baker was pressed into service subito when Dino's son Federico, 21, who has screen credit as executive producer, advertised in the Hollywood trade papers for "a tall, well-built black man" to play the monkey. The ad infuriated civil rights groups and created the film's major publicity gaffe. At that point, Baker slipped into one of his own creations and began playing Kong on sets scaled so that the 6-ft. Baker would look like a 40-ft. ape against them.
Baker's intensive study of these creatures paid off. Says Guillermin: "I spent long weeks at various zoos studying gorillas, especially how they move. I was stunned when Rick put on that suit. It was just damned eerie, because he was a gorilla in every move and gesture."
Rick enjoyed it too—most of the time. "I guess disappearing into my gorilla suit and thumping my chest has something to do with a transference of power. You really do feel pretty powerful down in there." Of course, it was not all mangoes and bananas for him. The temperature went over 100° inside his latex and bearskin outfit, and Baker sweated off 5 Ibs. every working day. Then, too he was not responsible for his own facial expressions. He had five different masks to wear, depending on Kong's basic mood in the shot. The masks could be made to change expression—but not by Baker. Hydraulic facial "muscles" tug the features into smiles, frowns and full-scale rage. Kong in a lustful mood is a little masterpiece of technology, all controlled by a technician. Baker could not even let his own eyes be seen by the camera. "That's always been the giveaway," he says. "You can always tell a man's in the monkey suit by looking at the eyes." Therefore, he wears contact lenses that simulate a gorilla's orbs.