Hugh York; Hairstylist and Makeup Artist of Celebrities

Hugh York, a Coty Award-winning Hollywood hairstylist and makeup designer for such celebrities as Candice Bergen, Cher and Farrah Fawcett, has died. He was 53.

York died of cancer March 10 in his Los Angeles home, friends said Thursday.

Born in Ashland, Ore., and raised there and in Scottsdale, Ariz., York gained experience at Lily Dashe and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York before moving to Saks Beverly Hills in the mid-1960s. There, Bergen selected him as her hairstylist for a film, and he quickly won a following among Hollywood celebrities.

Cher devoted a chapter in her recent book to the makeup styles York developed for her, and Fawcett credited him in her autobiography for creating the look she made famous on the “Charlie’s Angels” television series and in commercials for Wella Balsam hair care products.

“It’s not a layer or shag, but a special kind of graduation all around,” York said in 1977 of Fawcett’s hairstyle. “It takes hot curlers, rollers, lots of pampering and care.”

In the mid-1970s, York was host of a nationally syndicated television program called “Total Image,” offering advice on hairstyling, makeup and fashion.

“Beauty is not from the neck up,” he frequently said. “It is the total woman.”

At his own salon, Hugh York & Associates, York served such clients as Dame Judith Anderson, Diahann Carroll, Edie Adams, Diana Ross, Sophia Loren, Princess Grace, Margaux Hemingway, Cheryl Tiegs and Cybill Shepherd.

He created looks for men as well, and his clients included Robert Stack and Neil Diamond as well as many politicians.

Two decades ago, York commanded fees of $1,500 plus expenses for consultations with local and national politicians in New York, Washington or California. The service involved styling hair and makeup and selecting fashionable eyeglasses and a wardrobe that could cost thousands of dollars but would look as though a voter could buy it off the rack.

“You want to gauge the look both to raise money by and to sell to the American public,” he once said.

Candidates ended up, he said, “wearing their own identity. That’s why I have been called an image-maker.”

York is survived by his mother and stepfather, Alice and Raymond Bacus, and a sister, Betty Lou Sweeten.