His Special Effect : Maurice Stein Uses His Skills as a Makeup Artist to Renew the Lives of Burn and Cancer Survivors

Makeup artist Maurice Stein designed Barbra Streisand’s look for the film “Funny Girl,” was a member of the Academy Award-winning makeup team for “Planet of the Apes” and created Estelle Getty’s old-age makeup for the television series “Golden Girls.” His Toluca Lake store, Cinema Secrets, is a play land of cosmetics of every hue, special-effects products such as fake blood, artificial beards and costumes galore.

Yet none of that has proven as rewarding for him as a far less flashy endeavor: providing makeup, wigs and hair care to burn survivors and people with cancer.

“This is the retirement part of my life,” says Stein, 61. “I retired 10 years ago from working full time on a studio set. But I decided I was wasting all the knowledge I had.”

Stein spent four years developing a special foundation makeup that covers burns effectively, yet provides a sheer, natural look and feel. He works with burn survivors--he refuses to call them victims--while store manager Ondine Galloway takes care of those with cancer.

All are treated with compassion and respect in offices designed to provide warmth as well as privacy. Those with burns are taught to apply face and body makeup. People who have lost hair while undergoing chemotherapy are fitted with wigs and taught techniques for their care and styling. They also receive makeup and lessons in caring for skin if the tone and texture have been changed by illness and therapy. There is no charge for supplies or services for those who cannot afford to pay.

“Patients become clients here,” Stein says. “We pride ourselves that we take over where the medical industry leaves off. We do what we can to make them feel comfortable, help them understand that we’re here to make them look as nice as possible. Once they realize that, and see themselves with a new head of hair or skin tone, people immediately feel emotionally and physically better.”

Stein does not limit his efforts to his store site. If clients are too ill to leave their homes, he has them send photos and speaks with them by phone; he then mails two or three makeup shades with which to experiment. For clients who live in other parts of the country, he asks for before-and-after photos and a sample of the makeup foundation they have been using, then finds a color match among his products. He also works with hospital burn units and various nonprofit organizations, including some for battered women.

On a recent trip to visit medical and cosmetology facilities in England and Norway, he visited a 9-year-old Norwegian burn survivor, teaching the boy how to apply facial makeup.

Stein also works with Barbara Kammerer Quayle, founder and director of the Center for Image Enhancement at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey. Quayle’s face was badly burned in a car accident 18 years ago. She met Stein when she became his client three years ago and now teaches others how to use the makeup techniques she learned from him.

“Maurice has always been extremely helpful,” she says. “He’s always been willing to assist at national meetings, and help individuals there. He and his wife have the reputation of being real givers in the community. And he’s been a cheerleader in what I do.”

If Stein does not have the resources to aid someone in need, he finds someone who does. He prevailed upon a contact in charge of prosthetics at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Westwood to help a San Diego woman whose burns had destroyed both ears and two-thirds of her nose: He persuaded doctors at UCLA to reconstruct her face and ears.

“She was on welfare. She didn’t work or go to school,” Stein says. “In a year or so, she’ll be able to be a benefit to society.”

Stein’s care and concern is echoed by Galloway, director of his store’s Appearance Renewal Center for Women, which despite the name also serves men and children. “I never want my clients to feel that this is just a job to me,” she says. She carries a pager 24 hours a day. “It’s my clients’ reassurance that it’s not over when they walk out the door,” she says. “I want them to know they can reach me.”

She recalls a client who had told no one she was receiving cancer treatments and called in a panic on the day of an important dinner gathering because she had washed her wig and could not style it properly. Galloway piled her young son into her car and rushed to the rescue.

Stein, whose wife of 34 years, Barbara, sons Michael and Danny and daughter Debra are all involved in Cinema Secrets, plans to continue his work until he completely retires. After that, he’ll have family members carry on. “If we’re in a position where we can do this,” he says, “why not continue to do so?”

* This occasional column tells the stories of the unsung heroes of Southern California, people of all ages and vocations and avocations, whose dedication as volunteers or on the job makes life better for the people they encounter. Reader suggestions are welcome and may be sent to Local Hero Editor, Life & Style, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053.