Giannetto De Rossi, one of the legends of horror makeup and special effects, has passed away at the age of 79.

De Rossi had worked as a makeup artist on films since the 1960s, but interestingly, his early work was as a "traditional" makeup artist on "normal" films directed by some of the greatest movie legends in Italian history. For instance, he was the makeup artist on Sergeo Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968, Federico Fellini's Casanova in 1976 and Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (also in 1976).

Everything changed when he was approached by director Joe D'Amato for the film Emanuelle in America. D'Amato, you see, had a popular erotic film series based on the French erotic film, Emmanuelle (yes, it seriously was as simple as D'Amato removing one of the two M's in the character's name). Each film kept trying to push the envelope a little more than the last one and in Emanuelle in America, the title character (who is an investigative journalist) is investigating the world of "snuff film" (movies where actual murders are caught on film). De Rossi had to come up with a way to do realistic snuff films and he did such a good job that at least one actress complained about the whole thing being way too disturbing.

He did such a good job that the legendary Italian horror film director, Lucio Fulci, approached him about doing effects for Fulci's next project, Zombi 2. De Rossi's zombie makeup for Zombi 2 are some of the most respected designs in the history of horror film, and the bite wounds (and an exploding head) are historic. It is all so disgusting, but it is almost hard to pull your eyes away.

De Rossi did two other Fulci films, The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery.

His reputation was now so good that the famed Italian movie producer, Dino De Laurentis, hired him for two major motion pictures that he was producing, 19844's Dune and Conan the Destroyer (De Rossi designed the Dagoth monster suit that Andre the Giant wears in the movie). De Rossi was also hired to do special effects for 1988's Rambo III, with Sylvestr Stallone being so impressed by him that he had him also do the effects for 1996's Daybreak.

De Rossi continued to gross people out for the rest of his life. His special effects and makeup for 2005's High Tension was regarded as some of the best (and most disturbing) effects of his career...