Mel Berns was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 make-up artist. He created the makeup for Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...

's screentest at RKO Pictures

RKO Pictures

RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...

. He was the Head of Makeup at RKO for more than twenty years, creating the makeup for Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...

 and Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....

.

He was a lifelong friend of Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....

, who makes ample reference to their friendship in her autobiography: Ginger: My Story.

He worked extensively in television after leaving RKO, notably the Perry Mason

Perry Mason (TV series)

Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...

series

He died in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

on May 7, 1977.

A partial list of his best known credits include:

• A Bill of Divorcement (1932)
• Morning Glory (1933)
• King Kong (1933)
• Christopher Strong (1933)
• Professional Sweetheart (1933)
• Rafter Romance (1933)
• Little Women (1933)
• Flying Down to Rio (1933)
• The Son of Kong (1933)
• Spitfire (1934)
• The Gay Divorcee (1934)
• Roberta (1935)
• The Nitwits (1935)
• Alice Adams (1935)
• Top Hat (1935)
• Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
• Follow The Fleet (1936)
• Mary of Scotland (1936)
• Swing Time (1936)
• Shall We Dance (1937)
• Stage Door (1937)
• Bringing Up Baby (1938)
• Carefree (1938)
• Bachelor Mother (1939)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
• The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
• Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
• Mr. Lucky (1943)
• The Curse of the Cat People (1944)